Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Acts 25:9-10

9-10. Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure--to ingratiate himself with them.

said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and ... be judged ... before me--or, "under my protection." If this was meant in earnest, it was temporizing and vacillating. But, possibly, anticipating Paul's refusal, he wished merely to avoid the odium of refusing to remove the trial to Jerusalem.