THE THREE YOUNG MEN. - Early Christian art often depicted the two episodes narrated by the prophet Daniel concerning the three Hebrew youths Ananias, Azariah, and Mishael (Dan. 3:13-30). The two moments are also distinguished in the *Commentatio animae*: “Libera Domine... sicut liberasti tres pueros de camino ignis et de manu impii regis.” But even before art, Pope Clement, recalling the three youths, warned that persecutors do not know that the Most High is the protector and defender of those who serve His most mighty name with purity of conscience (1 Cor. 45: PG 1, 301).
Origen identifies Nebuchadnezzar as the precursor of the persecutors of the faithful of Christ; not only then did Nebuchadnezzar erect the golden statue, not only then did he threaten Ananias, Azariah, and Mishael with being cast into the furnace if they refused to worship the statue. Even today Nebuchadnezzar speaks the same language to us who are the true Hebrews (Exhortatio ad martyres, 33; PG 17, 604). The three young men thus symbolize the victims of persecutions; for this reason, this scene was painted in the cubicle of the Priscilla cemetery where the martyr Crescention was buried, martyred in 304 (Wilpert, *Pitture*, pl. 123, 1). The same scene was seen by Bosio in the vault of a rainbow in the cemetery now called of Marcus, Marcellianus, and Damasus, on the right side of the Appian Way, discovered at the beginning of 1948 (A. Bosio, *Roma sotterranea*, Rome 1634, p. 279).
More frequently, the representation is found in sarcophagi, generally carved on the lids (Wilpert, *Sarcofagi*, p. 261 sqq.). In some examples, Nebuchadnezzar wields a spear (Wilpert, *Sarcofagi*, pl. 199, 3, 200, 2 and 3); in others, he is accompanied by a soldier or a centurion (id., op. cit., pl. 176, 1 and 6; 199, 2 and 5); sometimes he stands rather than sits (id., op. cit., pl. 195, 4). The representation of the three young men unharmed in the furnace dates from as early as the mid-second century in the so-called Greek Chapel in Priscilla (Wilpert, *Pitture*, pl. 13). They are depicted in an attitude of prayer, with hands raised high, “laudantes Deum, et benedicentes Domino” (Dan. 3:24). They generally wear the Phrygian cap or tiara on their heads and are always clothed; sometimes in green (in Priscilla: Wilpert, *Pitture*, pl. 78, 1; in Bassilla: ibid., pl. 114; in the Giordani: E. Josi, *Le pitture rinvenute nel cimitero dei Giordani*, in *Riv. di archeol. crist.*, 5 (1928), pp. 202-203, fig. 27). In Christian sarcophagi, the scene is often accompanied by other figures or includes an attendant stoking the fire (Wilpert, *Sarcofagi*, pls. 170, 4, 170, 2) or a person in a pallium with columns, which Wilpert explains in some cases as one of the Chaldean accusers (Dan. 3:8) or as the angel of the Lord Himself who assists the three young men. A sarcophagus lid contains in the upper register the date of the year 334 (Wilpert, op. cit., p. 22 and pl. 181, 2). Two Byzantine-era bas-reliefs with the three youths amid the flames are in the Museum of Constantinople (A. Muñoz, *Sculture bizantine*, in *N. Bull. di arch. crist.*, 12 (1906), pp. 111-113, fig. 1 and pl. 4, 1, where the angel is also present). The scene is also found graffitied in an inscription in the cemetery of Praetextatus (E. Josi, *Note sul cimitero di Pretestato*, III, in *Riv. di arch. crist.*, 12 (1935), p. 15 and fig. 8). At Carthage, in the basilica of Damous-el-Karita, an inscription in the museum reads: *tres orantes pueri*, and below, also in mosaic, are the busts of the three (P. Monceaux, *Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne de l'Afrique*, Paris 1907, p. 63, no. 201). Some lamps from Rome and Africa depict the refusal to worship the statue (R. Garrucci, *Storia dell’arte cristiana*, VI, Prato 1880, pls. 473, 3, 476, 6 and 8; A. Toulotte, *Le roi Nabuchodonosor sur des monuments africains*, in *N. Bull. arch. crist.*, 6 (1900), pp. 113-119); others show the three youths amid the flames with the angel among them; this is also the case on a lamp from Sulmona (R. Garrucci, loc. cit., pl. 475, 7; B. Manna, *Di un’antica lucerna cristiana di Sulmona rappresentante i t. f. di Babilonia*, in *N. Bull. di arch. crist.*, 27 (1921), pp. 101-105 and pl. 16).
The three Hebrew youths amid the flames appear on the glass cup from Podgoritza (G. B. De Rossi, *Podgoritza in Albania, Insigne tazza vitrea*, in *Bull. arch. crist.*, 2nd ser., 5 (1874), pp. 133-135). They also recur in other works, such as in the chapel of Brescia, on the cover of an evangelary in Ravenna (R. Garrucci, *Storia*, VI, pl. 421), and in the chapel of Brivio, now in the Louvre (Ph. Lauer, *La chapelle de Brivio*, in *Fondation E. Piot*, XIII, 1906, pp. 229-240). The three young men were also venerated in Egypt, where a church was built in their honor in Alexandria; in Africa, at Guelma, their memory was enshrined in an altar (*sanctus or[um] trium [puerorum]*) (P. Monceaux, *Enquête sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’Afrique*, Paris 1907, p. 63, no. 201).