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
Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey his twin brother Remus with the she-wolf that cared for the twins, and Augustus' victory at the Battle of Actium. The first half of the "Aeneid" mimics the journey of Odysseus in several ways. Though the "Odyssey" takes course over the span of 24 books while the "Aeneid" replicates the happenings in the "Odyssey" in 6 books, there are several comparisons to make. Odysseus and Aeneas are both royalty, Odysseus being the king of Ithaca and Aeneas a Trojan prince. Without the help of divine intervention though, neither hero would have met his destiny, though there were opposing gods who