Erasure of the Great Queen

Queen Elissa and the Romanization of Carthaginian Culture

by Caleb Kirkpatrick

“Carthago delenda est” proudly declared by Cato the Elder, echoed throughout the halls of the Roman Senate.¹ Meaning “Carthage must be destroyed,” this chant, among the Roman people stemmed from their hatred of the Punic Wars and Hannibal’s razing of northern Italy in 218 B.C.E. The mantra of the people later came true as the legendary city was destroyed in 146 B.C.E and its history erased. The history of Carthage is shown throughout much of the western musical history. Henry Purcell’s opera, Dido and Aeneas highlights the historical erasure of the Carthaginians through the view of the legendary founder of Carthage, Queen Elissa or Dido by portraying her as mad and using mythification to distort her history.² However, Purcell’s opera only represents the final form of her story.

Queen Elissa is the true Punic name of Dido, while Dido is the name given to her by the Romans. Many scholars have used the name Dido when referring to her; however, more recent scholars are using Elissa as a reclamatory gesture and more historically accurate way to refer to her. Queen Elissa deserves to be recognized by her true name from a culture that has been long oppressed and erased.

Virgil’s, The Aeneid, caused the stories of the great Carthaginian queen to be warped with mythology and lies to fulfill imperialist reframing.³ The destruction of Queen Elissa’s city and the anti-Carthaginian mindsets found in many artistic narratives have contributed to the erasure of their history. Queen Elissa has been twisted and erased in the literature and music of the western world starting from Virgil’s The Aeneid before being revived into Renaissance age by Dante’s La Divina Commedia; Queen Elissa’s erasure ultimately culminated in Marlowe’s Dido, Queene of Carthage, and in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. The use of Purcell’s text and music represents the final completion of the Romanization and ultimate erasure of Queen Elissa’s historical identity.

The History of Phoenicia and Carthage

The Phoenicians are one of the oldest and most influential civilizations in western history, first documented with the founding of Byblos in 3000 BCE. Historians debate if the Phoenicians emerged around 1300 BCE or earlier. In his book, Phoenicians, Sanford Holst provides evidence of civilization forming in the modern area of Lebanon in the city of Byblos around 3000 BCE which is further corroborated by early Egyptian accounts of the cedar trade. The Phoenician people lived in peace for over 2000 years and traded amongst a growing Mediterranean, which even stretched out into modern Morocco. According to Holst, the Phoenicians lived by simple tenets that helped them to survive: “peace, equality, reverence for women, assimilation, and trade.” ⁴ The people of Phoenicia survived without having any military force until the era of Alexander, with the exception of Carthage creating the first military under Hamilcar around 300 BCE.⁵ The mainland of Phoenicia (modern day Lebanon) consisted of three important and large cities: Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre. The city of Tyre became the most well known city through the Torah and the Bible.⁶ 1 Kings in the Tanakh and the Christian Bible introduces King Hiram of Tyre who is a descendant of Queen Elissa.

1 And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.
2 And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
3 Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.
4 But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
5 And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. 1 Kings 5:1-5 KJV⁷

The act of building Solomon’s temple is an important part of history that survived through Hebrew and Phoenician accounts. King Hiram I’s bloodline produced different familiar figures, such as Queen Jezebel who was famously defenestrated and eaten by dogs.⁸ Jezebel’s story has been used for misogynistic purposes and distorted, similarly to Queen Elissa who was written as “mad.” While Biblical accounts of the Phoenicians are called into question, there is proof of their existence such as the ruins of Solomon’s Temple. Similarly to the Phoenicians, Biblical accounts of Queen Jezebel are called into question as well but many stories of the Old Testament have been corroborated by other historical sources. The line of King Hiram I continued through Mattan I who had two children, Pygmalion and Elissa. Elissa was the more popular and beloved child, however upon the death of Mattan I, the young Pygmalion ascended to the throne as King of Tyre. Pygmalion ended the bloodline of Hiram I and due to political tensions at the time, Elissa and many wealthy members of Tyre fled to Northern Africa and founded the city of Qart-Hadast⁹ in 814 BCE.¹⁰ Qart-Hadast remained part of the Phoenician civilization for many years until Alexander the Great conquered the majority of the eastern Phoenicians in 332 BCE, causing them to fully assimilate into a Hellenistic society and lose their trading empire. Up until Alexander’s onslaught, the Carthaginians and Phoenicians were the same people and meant that they shared the same culture. A large part of Phoenician culture at the time was assimilating with other more prominent cultures in the area while retaining their own ideals, hidden record keeping, and keeping their key cultural tenets including as Holst notes. ‘peace, equality, reverence for women, assimilation, and trade. Phoenicians worshipped “Our Lady of Byblos” which is their version of mother nature and eventually they added a second but lesser male deity; however, the Carthaginian religion would later deviate as they became more independent after Alexander, resulting in two equals deities of opposite sexes, Tanit and Baal-Hammond.¹¹ Qart-Hadast survived Alexander’s conquests and became the legendary Empire of Carthage. The Empire endured for many years until 146 BCE when they succumbed to the Roman Republic in the Third Punic War. The destruction of Carthage marked the beginning of a Romanized myth about the Carthaginians. This long-standing Roman myth erased Carthaginian culture and greatly influenced centuries of western literature and music. The history and culture of the Carthaginians and Phoenicians helped shape the Mediterranean through their vast trading empire and respect for those around them.

The start of the Roman anti-Carthaginian myth stemmed from the First Punic War when the Romans wanted to have full control of the territories of Sicily, which were split between the Greeks and the Carthaginians.¹² The Roman hatred for the Carthaginians became amplified during the Second Punic War when the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca went on his legendary campaign. Hannibal took 50,000 men and around 37 elephants through northern Africa, across Iberia, Gaul, and then over the Alps all while collecting more soldiers from the natives who shared a similar hatred of Rome. The surprise invasion of Rome happened as Hannibal came down south into northern Italy and wreaked havoc. The Battle of Cannae went down as one of the most infamous moments in the history of both Carthage and Rome as Hannibal took his army of 50,000 against all of Rome’s legions which comprised 80,000 men. The Carthaginians defeated the Roman legions and Hannibal’s tactics of razing and utter destruction completely shattered their morale. Instead of going straight to Rome, Hannibal spent years in northern Italy fighting the Romans and razing the countryside while slowly decreasing the size of his own military.¹³ After around a decade, the Romans invaded Carthage in Africa and Hannibal went back and suffered a defeat at the Battle of Zama and soon ended the Second Punic War. Hannibal Barca ended his own life via poison so he wouldn’t be captured by the Romans and face their wrath. The Second Punic War would be the largest event that set into motion the fate of the Carthaginian empire due to Hannibal and the army’s actions.

The carnage waged during the Second Punic War traumatized the Romans and created a deep hatred for the Carthaginians. Cato the Elder fought in and survived the war but his experiences led to his infamous agenda against the people of Carthage. Cato would eventually ascend into the Roman senate and there famously ended each speech with, “Carthago Delenda Est,”, as a reminder that Rome could not flourish as long as Carthage still lived. Carthage lacked a major military and lost much of its territory after its defeat in the Second Punic War; however, it still retained a commercial empire. Trades across the Mediterranean helped Carthage recover and flourish in their reduced territory, a theme that is seen throughout the entire history of the Phoenicians. While Carthage recovered after their defeat in the war, their fate had already been sealed.

Cato helped keep the anti-Carthaginian agenda alive in the wake of the war even while there were some Romans who moved on and forgot. Soon after his death, Cato’s mantra would finally be realized during the Third Punic War as Rome had completely destroyed and razed Carthage in 146 BCE.¹⁴ According to Sanford Holst, the destruction of Carthage was up until the modern era one of the largest massacres in history.¹⁵ The Romans went door to door and slaughtered everyone while destroying their heritage sites and history. Very few Carthaginian historical records survived the onslaught other than one about farming, which started the process of the Romanization of Carthaginian history as they now controlled the narrative and Phoenicians were no more.

The Romanized Story of Elissa

Virgil’s 20 BCE epic, The Aeneid, follows Aeneas as he travels from Troy to the Italian peninsula and then eventually making his way to the new city of Carthage. After his encounter with the Carthaginians, he leaves to go back to the Italian peninsula and creates the city of Lavinium. Lavinium becomes one of the ancestor cities of Rome and highlights Aeneas’ importance to the Romans. Aeneas and Dido fall deeply in love with each other during his stay in the city. As Aeneas leaves Carthage, Dido’s grief overwhelms her and she committs suicide. Importantly, Virgil views Dido’s suicide in a negative light; She is presented as an unhinged, or “mad,” character. The mythification of Carthage is still seen within the writing of other forms of art as it bases itself on Virgil’s poem and continues to force Roman perceptions onto her life story.

Dido, fearful yet crazed at the ghastly extent of her planning,
Frantically glances about her with bloodshot gaze, and impending
Death now discolours her quivering cheeks with its pallor and blotches.
Bursting through doors to the innermost courtyard in frenzy, she clambers. . . .
“My hands built this pyre, my voice called out to our fathers’ Gods.
Did you cruelly arrange that I’d not be attending your deathbed?
You’ve killed me and yourself, the Sidonian people and senate, Sister, your city as well.
Give me water to cleanse all these gashes;
If any breath should stray from her mouth in its final expression,
Let me absorb it in mine.’ The Aeneid Book Four¹⁶

Virgil wrote The Aeneid during an interesting time in Roman history. It was written at the end of an era when Roman poetry, including the works of Cicero, were most prominent. The Aeneid serves as a piece that highlights the Roman perception of Elissa due to her misogynistic representation as a “mad” woman. The work was written towards the end of Virgil’s life and around two decades after the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate, sparking the years of the Roman Civil War.¹⁷ The civil war came to an end The civil war came to an end in 27 B.C.E when Octavian renamed himself Augustus and established the Roman Empire. While Virgil had started The Aeneid shortly before the end of the civil war, he finished it after the establishment of the new order. Propaganda and brutality reigned supreme as new Roman laws were established during the Empire’s first years. The basis of The Aeneid is the foundation of the origins of Rome. It uses a known enemy of the Republic, the Carthaginians, to unify the Roman people, lift their spirits and display their superiority.

During the European Renaissance, humanists such as Boccaccio and Bruni viewed the era of Cicero and Virgil as a golden age of classical art and literature.¹⁸ Writing at the dawn of the Renaissance, the Florentine poet and politician, Dante Alighieri, continued to perpetuate the Roman revision of the Carthaginian story. In Dante’s 1321 work, La Divina Commedia, Virgil leads Dante down through the circles of Hell in order to save Dante’s wife. As the pair enter the second circle they encounter Dido.¹⁹ By putting Dido in Hell, Dante continues Roman perceptions toward the queen through a Christian lens.

From the First Circle thus I downward went
Into the Second, which girds narrower space. . . . .
Now had I reached a place devoid of light,
Raging as in a tempest howls the sea
When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight,
The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly,
Sweeping the shades along with it, and them
It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. . . . .
But greater woe compelling loud lament.
From Dido’s band those spirits issuing pressed
Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; - Dante’s Inferno from La Divina Commedia ²⁰

Many types of anti-Carthaginian mythification have influenced western literature for over a thousand years. Another example of an adaptation is Christopher Marlowe’s 1594 CE play, Dido, Queene of Carthage, which is based on The Aeneid. While Marlowe’s play is based on the same material as the others, it ends up going in a different direction due to the way that he portrays Dido during her suicide. Marlowe writes in a way that shines a negative light upon Aeneas as he is blamed for the “slaughter” of Dido and "perjury". Marlowe’s version also presents other interesting concepts regarding the monarchical state of Carthage such as Dido’s sovereignty. Marlowe’s play examines how Dido’s rulership plays a role in her own autonomy and eventual suicide. Paleit writes, “In making Dido’s a tragedy about the failure to sustain personal autonomy, the play makes her fate especially cruel. In Dido Queene of Carthage, a sovereign self is made to experience their own self-eclipsing subjection to another—in fact, for much of the play go about using their own sovereign will to realise that subjection.” ²¹ Marlowe’s work has a more positive view of Elissa when compared to other works; however, the misogynistic and xenophobic tropes that have been perpetuated by the Romans on Elissa have persisted.

“Now, Dido, with these reliques burn thyself,
And make Aeneas famous through the world
For perjury and slaughter of a queen.
Here lie[s] the sword that in the darksome cave
He drew, and swore by, to be true to me: −
Thou shalt burn first; thy crime is worse than his. −
Here lie[s] the garment which I clothed him in
When first he came on shore; − perish thou too! −
These letters, lines, and perjured papers, all
Shall burn to cinders in this precious flame.
And now, ye gods, that guide the starry frame,
And order all things at your high dispose,
Grant, though the traitors land in Italy,
They may be still tormented with unrest;
And from mine ashes, let a conqueror rise,
That may revenge this treason to a queen,
By plowing up his countries with the sword.
Betwixt this land and that be never league,
Live, false Aeneas! truest Dido dies!” - Dido, Queen of Carthage²²

The Aeneid would later become the basis for Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, composed in 1689 CE. The poem and opera follow the story of Queen Elissa, calling her by the Libyan (Roman) name Dido, and the Trojan hero, Aeneas.²³ Dido falls deeply in love with Aeneas and it fills her with melancholy due to her self-doubt regarding her control over Carthage. The two agree to marry each other but then, in a mythological turn, a sorceress wants to destroy Carthage with the help of someone disguised as the Roman God Mercury. Aeneas listens to the fake Mercury, believes due to his faith in the Gods and decides to go forth to create the new Troy. Aeneas leaves Dido, which causes her to be so filled with grief that she ends her own life with Aeneas’ sword. The most famous moment of the opera is Dido’s final aria before she ends her life, “When I am Laid in Earth.”

Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me
On thy bosom let me rest
More I would, but Death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest
When I am laid in earth, May my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate - Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas²⁴

The original accounts of Elissa in history portray her in a much different light than Virgil’s story, Marlowe’s play, or Purcell’s opera. In history, Elissa had fled her homeland and founded her own city that, within her lifetime, grew exponentially. While not much is known about the end of her life, she was independent and brave for her actions in the founding of Carthage.²⁵ The librettist of Purcell’s opera was a renowned Irish poet and writer, Nahum Tate, who worked closely with Purcell on multiple projects. Tate portrays Queen Elissa as caring for her Queendom and her own image, however she grows weak due to her relations with Aeneas and ends her life over him when he leaves Carthage to establish a “New Troy”. The libretto and opera go hand in hand, so Tate’s interpretation of the source text is amplified by Purcell’s musical writing. She wants to be remembered in history but yet she cries out for her fate to be forgotten. Her true fate is still unknown due to the destruction of Carthage and the secrecy of Phoenician record keeping traditions. Queen Dido’s tragedy is connected to the deep rooted hatred of Carthaginians amongst the Romans, which ultimately portrays her and Carthage as weak while shining a light on Aeneas as an ancestor of Rome. Tate’s libretto along with Purcell’s writing further perpetuate Virgil’s mythification of Queen Elissa.

While each interpretation of the story has its own unique differences, it’s clear that the imperialist ideals of the Romans have continued their way into art and history. Virgil portrays Elissa in a way that makes her seem insane and mad while Purcell and Marlowe add some more humanity into their interpretations. Even with the humanity that Purcell and Marlowe add, the warped history of the Carthaginians still has forever changed the way people view Elissa and her people. The negative portrayal of Elissa seeped its way into other art as seen in Dante’s La Divina Commedia and how he shows her in Hell as a tortured spirit. All of the revisionist pieces of art that predated Dido and Aeneas influenced Purcell’s writing of the opera.

Dido and Aeneas Theory

Dido and Aeneas is often considered Purcell’s masterpiece as he experimented and pushed the boundaries of Baroque music into increased chromaticism while retaining musical humanist ideas from the Renaissance. Purcell’s unique approach in the pre-Bach Baroque era helps to create the different characters seen throughout the work. In James Paxton’s analysis of the opera he focuses on the affections, ground bass, and the styles of each piece.²⁶ In music the affections relate to the 12 different key signatures and how they make someone feel. This was a popular school of thought during the Renaissance and originated with the classical Greek philosophers. Purcell makes use of parallel major-minor tonalities throughout the entirety of the opera; meanwhile at the time it was more common for relative major-minor tonalities.²⁷ The use of affections in the parallelism he uses throughout his music creates a sense of changing emotions and highlights each character in a different way.

Purcell uses his parallelism and ground bass to portray her suicide in a much more tragic light during Dido’s final aria, “When I am Laid in Earth”. Purcell uses parallel major-minor tonalities along with dominant sevenths before ending on a half cadence in the previous recitative, “Thy Hand Belinda”, (IV IV7 VII vii i vii6 V/iv V/iv7 IV iv V bVI V) (see appendix A figure 1).²⁸ The famous “lament” bassline presents itself at the start of the aria and the same five measures of the basso continuo stretch on for the whole piece. The “lament” bassline is a descending chromatic line that is meant to highlight the melancholy of what is going on within Dido’s suicide (see appendix A figure 2).²⁹ Instead of Virgil’s maddened Dido, Purcell uses the music itself to add on to how much her grief is affecting her while also continuing to portray her as weak. The bassline represents a mental descent, at the same time the chordal structure also manages to provide some stability as it keeps repeating throughout the aria. The repetition of the harmony and the vocal melody represents a further descent in Queen Dido’s mental state. The hint of instability within the bassline comes from how many of the chords are in first inversion rather than root position, meaning that the third of the chord is in the bass.

The instrumentation of the final aria is standard for the era which contains strings, harpsichord, and light woodwinds. The instruments are not active during the aria and it creates more focus on Queen Dido as a character. The focus on her character through the instrumentation shines a light on her melancholy. Much of Dido’s negative moments throughout the entire opera tend to be written with a less active accompaniment as the focus is on her. The amplification of her negative traits in the opera continues to build upon the imperial mythmaking of the Romans.

The first scene of the opera also provides more context into the characterization of Queen Dido. Her aria “Ah! Belinda” delves into the torment that she is feeling and it is further highlighted as by it being in C minor.³⁰ The aria has a large range (C4 - F5) and contains many different leaps that cause the singer to shift registers (see appendix A figure 3).³¹ The register shifts from the melodic leaps create an instability in Queen Dido that is further amplified by the lyrics and the general tone of the soprani and contralti that play her. Compared to “When I am Laid in Earth”, “Ah! Belinda” has more simple harmony relying mostly on the i, iv, and V and is generally in root position. While Dido hasn’t fully devolved into pure mental anguish yet she is still portrayed as being in a state of depression. When Aeneas shows up in the opera, Purcell’s parallelism is prominent as it switches to C major. The construction of Dido’s melody helps to emphasize her depressive mental state.

Baroque French composer Charpentier wrote an analysis of all the keys using the doctrine of affections that was common in the Renaissance and Baroque era. He describes C major as “gay and warlike” while C minor is “sad and obscure" which demonstrates a clear contrast between the two characters.³² Though Charpentier’s analysis of the keys is subjective and doesn’t have much standing in the modern era of musical analysis, it was a common application among Purcell and his contemporaries in the Baroque era. Through the use of parallelism, Purcell is able to portray Queen Dido as only happy when Aeneas is around, which takes away her independence, strength, and autonomy as she is centered around a Trojan man.

Carthaginian Autonomy and Culture

Through Purcell and Tate’s interpretation of Queen Dido, she is portrayed as a maddened and deeply depressed woman. The misogynistic, “hysterical” way that Elissa is written detracts from her autonomy, obscures her history, forces Roman perceptions, and impacts the way people remember her.³³ As the most important figure in Carthaginian history, Dido has been consistently viewed negatively. The same woman that fled her home kingdom and founded one of the most legendary empires in history is popularly remembered as a hysterical and unstable woman. The Roman’s deeply ingrained propaganda and perceptions have survived many ages and nearly erased much of Carthaginian history. Since few documents survived the purge of Carthage, it is hard to get a full and clear history on Queen Elissa. For example, there is no way to truly know how her life ended and the events previous other than her leaving Lebanon to found Carthage. The Carthaginians are known in history and recognized as important; however, they are also overshadowed by their contemporaries. Purcell’s opera continues a long lineage of historical revision through artistic concepts such as writing and music theory. The misogynistic tropes present in interpretations of Queen Elissa have been deeply ingrained within the history of art.

The most well-known Carthaginian is Hannibal Barca and while he is more respected in the modern era due to his military tactics, it took many years for him to be recognized. In a patriarchal society it makes sense that Hannibal has received more recognition in history compared to Queen Elissa. One of the ways that Queen Elissa has been stripped of her autonomy as a brown woman in ancient history, is through the practice - perpetuated from Virgil to Purcell - of calling her Dido.

There have been a few modern attempts at reclaiming the Carthaginians such as the video game series Sid Meier’s Civilization, which features Carthage as a playable nation led by Queen Elissa beginning with Sid Meier’s Civilization II in 1996.³⁴ In the fifth game of the franchise, Queen Elissa has spoken dialogue in the Punic language that references Carthage as Qart-Hadast.³⁵ The mythological influences of Virgil and others are seen in the games even though it does take a more positive and reclamatory stance towards the people of Carthage. Queen Elissa’s true name not being used is a major way that her autonomy is stripped away as a brown woman in ancient history, which has happened to so many other historical women. Queen Elissa and her people have been done a disservice along with many other historical groups of people due to the oppression of civilizations that thought of themselves as superior. The use of art as both a tool of oppression and liberation is seen in the differences between Purcell’s opera and other forms of reclamatory art such as Sid Meier’s Civilization.

The Phoenicians and Carthaginians played an important role in the formation of Europe and the Mediterranean and yet they are overlooked by many due to their destruction from the Romans. Many historians have tried their best to uncover the lost histories of the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians which has revealed so much more about their civilizations; however, the Carthaginians have lost much of their history due to their civilization’s fall and the Roman mythmaking that followed it.³⁶ The rich culture of the Carthaginians was lost to time but there are still some people in Tunisia who identify with their Carthaginian heritage. The reclamation of Carthaginian history is a long and drawn-out process that has taken many years but there will always be dedicated historians and archaeologists that help to uncover the truth of their history. The impact the Romans had on controlling the narrative of history can be seen outside of Carthage, Roman treatment of the histories of other conquered peoples, including the Etruscans, Gauls, and Britons paralleled their efforts to rewrite Carthaginian history.³⁷ They also attempted to erase other powerful women including the warrior, Boudicca. Overall, the Carthaginians like many other civilizations have been pushed to the side and had their history completely revised by their enemies who were the victor.

Conclusion

Queen Elissa and the Carthaginians have been erased throughout history and masqueraded by Roman propaganda stemming from Cato the Elder and Virgil. Virgil’s impact on the world of literature of music, especially in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, can be seen through many different works. Purcell’s opera contributes to the further Romanization of Queen Elissa and her people's culture through his use of Virgil’s source material and his unique approach to the affections of music in order to portray her in a more negative light. In Purcell’s hands, Queen Elissa was stripped of her autonomy. His opera contributes to the Romanization of Queen Elissa and her people that was set by Virgil during the dawn of the Roman Empire. So much history is unknown and blinded by propaganda and mythology that it takes away unique stories from powerful women who had made such an impact on the world.

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1. Miles, Carthage Must Be Destroyed, 336-337. ↩
2. Purcell, Dido and Aeneas. ↩
3. Publius, The Aeneid. ↩
4. Holst, Phoenicians, 364-365. ↩
5. Holst, Phoenicians, 329. ↩
6. Lopez-Ruiz, The Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean, 281 - 285. ↩
7. Anon, Holy Bible, 425. ↩
8. Anon, Holy Bible, 469. ↩
9. Qart-Hadast, which translates to “New City”, would later be known as Carthage. ↩
10. Lopez-Ruiz, The Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean, 116 -119. ↩
11. Clifford, Phoenician Religion, 60-61. ↩
12. Holst, Phoenicians, 325-326. ↩
13. Miles, Carthage Must be Destroyed, 283-298. ↩
14. Beard, SPQR, 209-212. ↩
15. Holst, Phoenicians, 332. ↩
16. Publius, The Aeneid, 119-120. ↩
17. Beard, SPQR, 337-351. ↩
18. James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin Mclaughlin, The Portable Renaissance Reader, 120 - 135. ↩
19. Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, 12-14. ↩
20. Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, 12-14. ↩
21. Paleit, Dido, Queen of Carthage and the Contradictions of Sovereignty, 19. ↩
22. Marlowe, Dido, Queen of Carthage, 59. ↩
23. Publius, The Aeneid. ↩
24. Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, 84-86. ↩
25. Holst, Phoenicians, 250-253. ↩
26. Paxton, IB MUSIC, 1-3. ↩
27. Price, Purcell Studies, 192-207.
    Parallel major-minor for example is when C major goes to C minor and vice versa. Relative major-minor is when the change is kept within the key, such as C major going to A minor since they both have no sharps or flats. ↩
28. Figure 1. Purcell, Henry, Margaret Laurie, and Purcell Society. Dido and Aeneas. 1688. Reprint, Sevenoaks, Eng.: Novello, 1979. Ground bass is a motivic line in the bass voice that repeats throughout a piece. ↩
29. Figure 2. Purcell, Henry, Margaret Laurie, and Purcell Society. Dido and Aeneas. 1688. Reprint, Sevenoaks, Eng.: Novello, 1979. ↩
30. Purcell, Dido and Aeneas 7-9 ↩
31. Figure 3. Purcell, Henry, Margaret Laurie, and Purcell Society. Dido and Aeneas. 1688. Reprint, Sevenoaks, Eng.: Novello, 1979. Typically, women have different vocal registers than men. Women have two passaggi (breaks) that separate the registers, the primo and secundo passaggio. The leaps in Ah! Belinda goes across the usual primo passagio for mezzo-soprani. ↩
32. Charpentier, Règles de Composition. ↩
33. Bono, Rewriting the Memory of a Queen . ↩
34. Meier, Sid Meier’s Civilization II. ↩
35. Meier, Sid Meier’s Civilization V. ↩
36. The razing of Carthage is the main reason why many sources on Queen Elissa are unreliable as much of their documented history was destroyed. Sources that came after were greatly impacted by the perceptions the Romans had on Queen Elissa. ↩
37. Beard, SPQR 131 - 168. ↩

Page last updated 11:47 AM, June 29, 2026