Dido

In Greek and Roman sources Elissa or Dido appears as the founder and first Queen of Carthage in Tunisia. She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid.

Later Roman tradition

Letter 8 of Ovid's Heroides is a letter from Dido to Aeneas written just before she ascends the pyre. The situation is as in Virgil's Aeneid except that Ovid's Dido is pregnant by Aeneas. In Ovid's Fasti (3.545f) Ovid introduced a kind of sequel involving Aeneas and Dido's sister Anna. See Anna Perenna.

Related Topics:
Ovid - Anna Perenna

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The Barcids, the family to which Hannibal belonged, claimed descent from a younger brother of Dido according to Silius Italicus in his Punica (1.71–7).

Related Topics:
Hannibal - Silius Italicus

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The Augustan History ("Tyrrani Triginta" 27, 30) claims that Zenobia queen of Palmyra in the late 3rd century AD was descended from Cleopatra, Dido and Semiramis.

Related Topics:
Augustan History - Zenobia - Palmyra - Cleopatra - Semiramis

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The neutrality of this article is .

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An historiographical outline based on new studies and revisited classic sources (Virgil, Ovid, Silius Italicus, Trebellius Pollio; according to ?double writing? doctrines, where required):

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Dido, or Elissa. Phoenician Queen, founder of Carthage (n. 840-760 B.C.).

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First-born of the King of Tyre, her succession was struggled from her brother, who murdered her husband and imposed his tyranny. Probably to avoid a civil war, she left Tyre with a large following, starting a long voyage; main stages were Cyprus and Malta. Landed on Libyan coasts, about 814 B.C., she chose a place where to found a new capital city for Phoenician people: Carthage. She pacifically obtained the land by an ingenious agreement with the local Lord (today known as the "Theorem of Dido"). During her widowhood, she was insistently demanded by local kings; however she married again with a loyal Tyrian follower, probably named Barca . After a long and prosperous reign, she favored the passage to a Repubblic form, and she was deified by her people with the name of Tanit and like impersonification of Great Goddess Astarte (the Roman Juno). The maximum Latin writer, Virgil, introduced her figure in "western" culture, through his "double writing" system (the first superficial writing was intended for national audience and Augustus need, while the second one, deeper and hidden, reflects Author?s point of view and his historical reconstruction). The cult of Tanit survived to Carthage destruction and it was introduced in Rome itself by Emperor Septimius Severus. It extinguished definitively with barbaric invasions. Hannibal Barca was probably a direct descendant of D., and also Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, 1.000 years later, declared herself descendant and political heir of D..

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