Acts 25:12

Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Thou hast appealed unto Caesar: unto Caesar shall thou go.

Conferred with the council ... This was not the group of priests, but his own legal advisers. It appears that in some cases, the governor might deny such an appeal; but Festus' legal staff at once assured him that Paul's appeal would have to be honored.

Unto Caesar thou shalt go ... Some have read a sinister note into this remark, as if Festus already knew what a beast Nero was, and that the remark here was uttered with that in mind. However, as Nero, the Caesar mentioned here, had not yet developed the character by which he is notoriously remembered in history, this view of Festus' words would appear to be wrong. In 59 A.D., Nero was ending the first five good years of his rule, called the quinquennium; and as yet there was no evidence of the outrages that came later. "There was little in A.D. 59 that gave warning of events in A.D. 64."[8]