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When introducing the calculus of variations, we may invoke Dido's problem toillustrate the most fundamental variational problem: to find the curve of givenperimeter which bounds the greatest area. This type of problem ledmathematicians to invent solution methods of maxima and minima, and the genesisof variational calculus as a distinct branch of analysis. Dido's problem wasinspired by the mythical tale of the foundation of Carthage (ancient city inNorth Africa) by a Phoenician princess as told independently by Roman poetVirgil, and by Latin historian Justinus in the first two centuries BC.Historians have debated the facts surrounding Carthage's birth; however,contemporary mathematicians have accepted the vague events described by Virgilin his Aeneid, adding details to Dido's story to extrapolate a few verses anduse as a basis for the isoperimetric theorem. Was Leonhard Euler or Lord Kelvinwho first interpreted Virgil's poem as Dido's problem of variational calculus?In this article I attempt to resolve a question of historical attribution toidentify who first defined Dido's problem.

Dido's Problem. When a myth of ancient literature became a problem of variational calculus