A Brief Reflection on the Death of Dido, with an Acrostic Coda

Abstract

Close study of the end of Virgil’s fourth Aeneid will demonstrate the appropriateness of the poet’s identification of the goddess Juno as “omnipotent,” in light of the curse of Dido on the Romans of the future and its manifestation in the history of the Punic Wars. Consideration of the noted acrostic Maure from earlier in the book will reveal an inadvertent prediction of Rome’s eventual success over the Carthaginian queen’s imprecations.