Virgil wrote the Aeneid during what is known as the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, under the auspices of Rome's first emperor, Caesar Augustus. The court of Augustus commissioned Virgil's Aeneid, in part to validate itself. For this reason, it is not all that surprising that Virgil's Dido is flawed in a number of ways when compared to the standards of the time period in which she was created. Her most basic flaw is the fact that she is biologically a woman. Worse, she has achieved a station in life which the Romans would reserve exclusively for men as she is the ruler of a kingdom and she wages war. As well, she betrays the memory of her deceased husband and her duty as a widow, and by doing so she delays the illustrious founder of Rome from his destined path.
Although her relationship with Aeneas spans only this one book of the Aeneid, Dido has become a literary icon for the tragic lover, like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Aeneas" most heinous act in the Aeneid is his abandonment of Dido as not only does he abandon her, he drives her to suicide. Though at times Aeneas's happiness in his love for Dido seems to equal hers, it is with considerably less grief and anxiety that he is able to leave her in Carthage and go back about the business of bringing the survivors of Troy to Italy and founding Rome. Whereas Dido not only loves Aeneas but hopes that he and his warriors will strengthen her city, Aeneas's actions are the result of a momentary abandonment of his true duties and responsibilities. He indulges temporarily in romance and the pleasures of the flesh, but when Jupiter, through Mercury, reminds Aeneas of his destiny, he is dutiful and ready to resume his mission. .
Dido risks everything by falling for Aeneas, and when this love fails, she finds herself unable to reassume her dignified position. By taking Aeneas as a lover, she compromises her previously untainted loyalty to her dead husband's memory.
