Didius Salvius Julian us, Marcus

a Roman emperor, B. abt. A. D. 133. Having filled the offices of quæstor, ædile, and prætor, he was appointed commander of a legion in Germany, and subsequently governor of Belgica. For his services against the Catti, he was made governor of Dalmatic a, and next of Lower Germany. Having distinguished himself in Africa and Asia Minor, he returned to Rome, and, on the a a ination of Pertinax, made himself emperor by bribing the prætori an guards. He now a umed the name of Marcus Didius Commodus Severus Julian us; but, after a short reign of 2 months, was killed in his palace by a common soldier, A. D. 193. Di'do, whose name lives embalmed in the verse of Virgil and of Ovid, was daughter of Belus, king of Tyre. Pygmalion, who succeeded him, murdered her husband, Sichæus, in order to gain po e ion of his wealth; but D. managed to escape with the treasures for the sake of which he had committed the crime; and, aided by the Tyrians, who had fled with her to escape Pygmalion's tyranny, founded the city of Carthage. The legend is, that, having bargained with the natives for as much land as a bull's hide would cover, she had it cut into thin strips, and then claimed all the territory which these, joined together, were made to encompa . From this legend the citadel of Carthage took its name of Byrsa (the Greek for "a bull's hide"). Her beauty and riches caused her to be sought in marriage by many suitors; but finding that her subjects inclined to compel her to marry Hiarbas, king of Mauri tan i a, to avoid the match she pretended a desire to honor the memory of her husband Sichæus by a solemn sacrifice, and causing a funeral pile to be erected, ascended it, and suddenly stabbed herself in the presence of the a embled people. Her name had previously been Eli a, but was changed to that of Dido ("valiant woman"), in memory of this courageous act, and she was numbered among the Cart hag in i an divinities. Virgil transposes both dates and circumstances, in order to suit the requirements of his poem; for he makes D. kill herself in despair when abandoned by Eneas, who, according to the commonly received chronology, died some three hundred years before Dido was born.