You may well notice the name Dido mentioned in Tunisian museums, streets, cafés and hotels and wonder what it refers to. According to ancient Greek mythology recounted by the Roman author Virgil, Dido was a Phoenician princess who fled from Tyre in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 9th century BC, after her husband was murdered for his wealth by her own brother, the king. When Dido and her group of exhausted exiles reached the northern coast of Tunisia, the local chieftain granted them a little land on which to settle - just as much as could be encompassed by a single ox-hide. A hide was duly provided and the clever Phoenicians quickly folded and cut it in such a way as to make an enormously long continuous strip, which they laid around the summit of a hill in a prime position overlooking the bay of Tunis. This they swiftly set about strengthening into a fortified citadel – byrsa in their Phoenician language - by building defensive walls and earthworks around it, turning it into the famous Punic city of Carthage. The Carthaginians soon came to dominate the surrounding peoples and lands and then spread out from this secure base, building a trading empire with outposts and contacts as far away as Spain, West Africa and even Cornwall. This, according to the ancient story, is how the mighty Carthaginian civilisation began on top of the hill still called Byrsa today. Is it just coincidence that byrsa also means ox-hide in Ancient Greek?