Bema, Corinth is an integral part of the Agora in Corinth. The Bema, Corinth was in other words a pedestal of sorts where from dictates were issued.
The Agora
The Agora or “place of assembly” in the ancient Greek city-state was the place where people congregated for military duty or to hear the speeches of the ruling king or council. In the later part of Greek history, the agora served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods under colonnades.
The Bema
In the Agora, a platform was built alongside the public square in Corinth. This platform, was the called a bema in Greek. It was the place from which the Roman governor could address the crowds who gathered in the city’s central district. The platform was sometimes called a “judgment seat,” since rulers sometimes delivered judgments from such a platform.A bema was thus a platform for public addresses that stood in the forum of Greek cities. The bema of Corinth, called a “tribunal” in Acts, was built about 44 C.E. of blue and white marble.
Gallio on the Bema
As the story goes when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought dragged him before the tribunal. They believed that the man was persuading people to worship God in ways that was against the established law. Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews that had it been a matter of crime or serious villainy, he would have accepted the complaint of the Jews; but since it was a matter of questions about words and names and Jew law they were free to take law onto their own hands. Then all of them seized Sosthenes, the official of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of these things.
| 
