[198] Iarbas seems to have been connected with Dido in the original legend, as he appears in Justin 18. 6 as a king of the Maxitanians or Mazyes, who offers Dido marriage, threatening war in case of her refusal, whereupon she kills herself. He is here made a son of Ammon, the Libyan god whom the Greeks identified with Zeus and the Romans with Jupiter: and Virg. chooses to represent him as having introduced the worship of his parent-god among his countrymen. The spelling ‘Hammone’ is supported by Med. and Rom. ‘Garamantis’ apparently means Libyan generally. ‘Rapta’ as in 1. 28.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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