History of Carthage as a goddess at Carthage. The Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BC) presents Dido as a tragic heroine in his epic poem the "Aeneid", whose hero Aeneas travels from Troy, to Carthage, to Rome. The work contains inventive scenes, loosely based on the legendary history of Carthage, e.g., referring to the then well-known story how the Phoenician Queen cunningly acquired the citadel of the Byrsa. In Virgil's epic, the god Jupiter requires the hero Aeneas to leave his beloved Dido, who then commits suicide and burns in a funeral pyre. This episode employs not only the history or legends narrated by
Political commentary of the Aeneid founder of the new city of Rome, while Octavian, as the first Roman emperor, founded a new and improved Rome. Specifically, Aeneas seeks to establish a new nation based on that of Italy and Troy, just as Augustus sought to create a new Rome based on Rome's older traditions. These parallels, combined with Aeneas' portrayal as a strong and powerful leader, establish his means of promoting Augustus as a great leader. Virgil creates a common ancestry between Aeneas and Augustus by interacting with the Roman tradition of viewing Romulus as the founder of Rome. Romulus is known as the son