History of Tunisia for centuries assigned its foundation to a queen of Tyre, Elissa, also called Dido. The Roman historian Pompeius Trogus, a near contemporary of Virgil, describes a sinister web of court intrigue which caused Queen Elissa (Dido) to flee the city of Tyre westward with a fleet of ships. The Roman poet Virgil (70–19 B.C.) portrays Dido as the tragic, admirable heroine of his epic the "Aeneid", which contains many inventions loosely based on legendary history, and includes the story about how the Phoenician queen acquired the Byrsa. By the middle of the sixth century B.C., Carthage had grown into a
HMS Dido (1836) HMS Dido (1836) HMS "Dido" was an 18-gun built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s. "Dido" had a length at the gundeck of and at the keel. She had a beam of , a draught of and a depth of hold of . The ship's tonnage was 734 tons burthen. The "Daphne" class was armed with eighteen 32-pounder cannon. The ships had a crew of 145 officers and ratings that later increased to 175. "Dido", the second ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 26 February 1834, Designed by Symonds, laid down in