Dido "unpleasant" qualities: feminine virtue, "Semitic race", and North African civilization. As an innocuous example: when Benito Mussolini's regime named the streets of new quarters in Rome with the characters of Virgil's "Aeneid", only the name "Dido" did not appear. Selected English texts Commentary Dido Dido ( ; , ) was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first queen of Carthage. She is primarily known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his epic, "Aeneid". In some sources she is also known as Elissa ( , ). Many names in the legend of Dido
Dido Shalmaneser III in 841 BC, with "Ba‘al-‘azor" (Phoenician form of the name) or "Baal-Eser/Balazeros" (Greek form of the name), Dido's grandfather. This lends credibility to the account in Josephus/Menander that names the kings of Tyre from Abibaal and Hiram I down to the time of Pygmalion and Dido. Another possible reference to Balazeros is found in the "Aeneid". It was a common ancient practice of using the hypocoristicon or shortened form of the name that included only the divine element, so that the "Belus" that Virgil names as the father of Dido in the "Aeneid" may be a reference to