Dido

Carthage was built by Dido.

So saying, the son of Maia down he sent, / to open Carthage and the Libyan state, / lest Dido, weetless of the Fates' intent, / should drive the Trojan wanderers from her gate.

The Tyrians, yielding to the god, abate / their fierceness. Dido, more than all the rest, / warms to her Phrygian friends, and wears a kindly breast.

"Queen Dido rules the land, who came from Tyre afar, / flying her brother. Dark the tale of crime, / and long, but briefly be the sum supplied."

Here, by the goddess and her gifts renowned, / Sidonian Dido built a stately shrine. / All brazen rose the threshold; brass was round / the door-posts; brazen doors on grating hinges sound.

E'en such was Dido; so with joyous mien, / urging the business of her rising state, / among the concourse passed the Tyrian queen.

Then Dido thus, with downcast look sedate: / "Take courage, Trojans, and dismiss your fear. / My kingdom's newness and the stress of Fate / force me to guard far off the frontiers of my state."

Then Dido, struck with wonder at the sight / of one so great and in so strange a plight, / "O Goddess-born! what fate through dangers sore, / what force to savage coasts compels thy flight?"

There, under gorgeous curtains, at the head / sate Dido, throned upon a golden bed.

With various talks the night poor Dido wore, / and drank deep love, and nursed her inward flame, / of Priam much she asks, of Hector more, / now in what arms Aurora's offspring came, / of Diomede's horses and Achilles' fame.