Theophylact of Ohrid

Look how strong the struggle was, if on account of him the governor was guarding the city. The ruler of the people, of course, would not have acted thus if the zeal of Paul had not inflamed everyone. Aretas was the father-in-law of Herod.

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗

Peter of Alexandria

Likewise also, the renowned Paul having been oftentimes delivered up and brought in peril of death, having endured many evils, and making his boast in his numerous persecutions and afflictions, in the same city was also himself beheaded; who, in the things in which he gloried, in these also ended his life; and at Damascus he was let down by night in a basket by the wall, and escaped the hands of him who sought to take him.

The Canonical Epistle ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, At Damascus, he shows the evils he avoided, and this in a certain particular danger. Here it should be noted that the Apostle first began to preach Christ in Damascus, where he was thrown to the ground and converted to the faith, as he was on his way to arrest Christians. Therefore, the Jews appealed to the governor of that city, who was representing Aretas the king, to arrest Paul and put him to death. So the governor ordered the city-gates to be watched day and night, as it says in Ac. (chap. 9). …

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗