Hippolytus of Rome : Accordingly after this happened, "The king departed to his house and he went to bed without supper and food was not brought to him and sleep left him." [Daniel 6:18] How much did the righteous man do, who feared God, so that the king was so grieved over him to not take sustenance! And the satraps made merry all night, thinking that they were taking a prize from Daniel, but the king being sleepless all night bewailed that such a man was unrighteously destroyed, and so he was cautious lest on account of him he himself also be endangered. For the events which happened to Nebuchadnezzar and what happened to Belshazzar did not escape his notice, the former was banished from his kingdom, the latter on account of drinking from the holy vessels was killed that same night. — Commentary on Daniel 3.28.1-4 Jerome : Verse 18. "And the king departed to his own house, and went to bed without partaking of supper..." How sincere was the king's good will, when he would not touch food night or day or grant his eyelids sleep, but as long as the prophet was in danger he himself remained in a state of sympathetic suspense. But if a king who knew not God did such a thing for another man whose deliverance he desired, how much more ought we to implore God's mercy for our own sins with fastings and watchings. — St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER SIX Theodoret of Cyrus : Each of these details testifies both to his humanity and to his cowardice: a mark of his humanity was his refusing to partake of food or let his eyes rest in sleep, instead staying awake in grief for the unjust punishment of Daniel; it was a mark of cowardice that he was not so affected as to counter the accusers and invoke his royal authority and power to save the wronged. — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 6:18