Dido ruled Carthage as its founding queen, governing the city with wisdom and justice until her love for Aeneas and his subsequent departure led to her death on the funeral pyre.
Dido founded Carthage after fleeing Tyre, famously cutting an oxhide into thin strips to claim enough land for the city's citadel, the Byrsa, on the North African coast.
Aeneas was cast ashore at Carthage by Juno's storm, welcomed by Dido into her rising city, and lingered there as her lover until Mercury descended with Jupiter's command to sail for Italy and fulfill his destiny.
Ascanius lived in Carthage during his father's love affair with Dido. Cupid had assumed Ascanius's form to enchant the queen, making the boy an unwitting instrument in Venus's scheme to secure the Trojans' safety.
Juno loved Carthage above all earthly cities, kept her armor and chariot there, and nurtured a dream that it might rule the nations — until fate decreed Rome's ascendancy and the city's destruction.
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