d crossed the
seas.

Dido listened, and as she had talked with many traders from all
countries she understood somewhat of his speech, and bade him stay
awhile and behold the wonders of the city she was building. So AEneas
stayed, and the heart of the queen went out to him; but as the days
passed by he tired of rich food and baths made sweet with perfumes, and
longed for wild hills and the flocks driven by the shepherds. Then one
morning he sailed away, and Dido saw his face no more; and in her grief
she ordered a tall pyre to be reared of logs of sandalwood and cedar.
When all was prepared she came forth with a golden circlet round her
head, and a robe of scarlet falling to her feet, till men marvelled at
her fairness, and laid herself down on the top of the pyre.

'I am ready,' she said to the chief of her slaves, who stood by, and a
lighted torch was placed against the pile, and the flames rose high.

In this manner Dido perished, but her name was kept green in her city to
the end.

[Illustration: She came forth with a golden circlet round her head.]

But though Dido was dead, her city of Carthage went on growing, and
conquering, and planting colonies, in Sicily, Spain, and Sardinia. Not
that the Carthaginians themselves, though a fierce and cruel people,
cared about forming an empire, but they loved riches, and to protect
their trade from other nations it was needful to have strong fleets and
armies. For some time the various Greek states were her most powerful
enemies; but in the third century before Christ signs appeared to
those with eyes to read them that a war between Carthage and Rome was at
hand.

Now it must never be forgotten for a moment that neither then, nor for
over two thousand years later, was there any such thing as Italy, as
_we_ understand it.

The southern part of the peninsula was called 'Greater Greece,' and
filled, as we have said, by colonies from different Greek towns. In the
northern parts, about the river Po, tribes from Gaul had settled
themselves, and in the centre were various cities peopled by strange
races, who for long joined themselves into a league to resist the power
of Rome. But by the third century B.C. the Roman empire, which was
afterwards to swallow up the whole of the civilised world from the
straits of Gibraltar to the deserts of Asia, had started on its career;
the league had been broken up, the Gauls and Greeks had been driven
back, and the whole of Italy south of