THE BIG DILEMMA

I- Cyrus the Great Plan to recover Croesus (Mago I) Treasure


What we already know:

Dido's and Croesus treasures landed in Carthage.
Bassus tiped Nero with information of an existing treasure in a cave in North Africa.
Croesus paid the Carthagian priests to be King of Carthage under the name of Mago I.
No one knows about the end of Croesus except Cyrus the great.

In this post we will know how Cyrus the Great made a successful plan to recover Croesus treasure, this plan was at work from 550 BC to 149 BC the fall of Carthage

II- Definitions: 

1- Cyrus the Great: (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), also known as Cyrus II or Cyrus of Persia, was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East,expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen.

The reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that brought "into subjection every nation without exception." Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Massagetae along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short rule.(a)

Cyrus the Great

2- The Hurrians: (also Khurrites) were a people of the Ancient Near East who lived in Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age. The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia to a large part consisted of Hurrians, and there is significant Hurrian influence in Hittite mythology. By the Early Iron Age, the Hurrians had been assimilated with other peoples, except perhaps in the kingdom of Urartu.

The Mitanni were closely associated with horses. The name of the country of Ishuwa, which might have had a substantial Hurrian population, meant “horse-land”. A famous text discovered at Hattusa deals with the training of horses. The man who was responsible for the horse-training was a Hurrian called Kikkuli. The terminology used in connection with horses contains many Indo-Aryan loan-words. (b)

3- The Assyrians: the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people (frequently known as Assyrians, Syriacs, Syriac Christians, Suroye/Suryoye, Chaldeans, and other variants, see names of Syriac Christians) are an ethnic group whose origins lie in the Fertile Crescent. Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people have been minorities under other ethnic groups' rule since the early Middle Ages. They have traditionally lived all over Iraq, northeast Syria, northwest Iran, and the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey.(c)

Assyria and Babylon became major powers. There were further influxes of peoples such as Hurrians, Kassites, Hittites and Mitanni, the former two peoples ruled Babylon for a time, and the Hittites and Mitanni dominated Assyria for a short period. Hurrians and Kassites seem to have disappeared into the general population in southern Mesopotamia, while the Mitanni and Hittites were overthrown and driven out of the north.
"In Achaemenian times there was an Assyrian detachment in the Persian army, but they could only have been a remnant. That remnant persisted through the centuries to the Christian era, and continued to use in their personal names appellations of their pagan deities. This continuance of an Assyrian tradition is significant for two reasons; the miserable conditions of these late Assyrians is attested to by the excavations at Ashur, and it is clear that they were reduced to extreme poverty under Persian rule." (d)

The Assyrian demand for precious metals was the main cause of Phoenician colonization in the Western Mediterranean.(e)
Map of the Assyrian Empire
http://explorethemed.com/Assyrians.asp?c=1


4- Numidians: were Berber tribes who lived in Numidia, in Algeria east of Constantine and in part of Tunisia . The Numidians were one of the earliest natives to trade with the settlers of Carthage. As Carthage grew the relationship with the Numidians blossomed. Carthage's military used the Numidian cavalry as mercenaries. Numidia provided some of the highest quality cavalry of the Second Punic War, and the Numidian cavalry played a key role in a number of battles, both early on in support of Hannibal and later in the war after switching allegiance to the Roman Republic.(f)
The Numidians are originally persians contingent in the army, they settled first in the desert with the Gaetuli and become Pharusii, some of them moved north between Mauretania and Carthage to create Numidia.(g)

5- Masaesylii and Massylies: they are the most important two tribes which forms the Numidians the Masaesylii are based in the west Known by their King Syphax and the Massylies based in the east known by their king Massinissa(h)

Massinissa Famous King of Massylies  (238 BC - 148 BC)

6-Numidian cavalry: was a type of light cavalry developed by the Numidians, most notably used by Hannibal during the Second Punic War. They were described by the Roman historian Livy as "by far the best horsemen in Africa." The Numidian cavalry's horses, ancestors of the Arabian horse, were smaller than those of the contemporary Roman cavalry and were well adapted for faster movement. To conserve weight, the cavalrymen did not use a saddle or bridle, did not wear armor, and carried smaller shields. Their weaponry consisted mainly of spears and javelins, in addition to a short sword.(i)

7- The Battle of Zama: fought around October 19, 202 BC, marked the final and decisive end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, allied with Berber Numidian forces, defeated a Carthaginian force led by the legendary commander Hannibal. Soon after this defeat on their home ground, the Carthaginian senate sued for peace, which was given to them by the Roman Republic on rather humiliating terms, ending the 17-year war.(j)

8- Hasdrubal the Boeotarch: was a Carthaginian general involved in the Punic Wars.Little is known about Hasdrubal the Boeotarch, the general who lost the Third Punic War to Scipio Aemilianus, Consul of the Roman Republic at the Siege of Carthage in 146 BC. His military skill was not to be doubted, as his army had been well trained and equipped and his work at defending Carthage cost the Romans a difficult campaign to suppress the defenders, but his tactical skills were dwarfed by his contemporaries, Masinissa and Scipio. He also had a wife and two sons, who, according to an account by Polybius, threw themselves into a burning temple when they saw Hasdrubal's army defeated by the Roman attackers. Hasdrubal surrendered himself to the Romans after his family's unfortunate deaths, but what happened to him after that is not known.
This may be the same general Hasdrubal who was defeated near the town of Tunes (now Tunis) by the Numidian king, Masinissa, just after war was declared (149 BC).(k)

9-Adherbal: The son of Micipsa, and grandson of Masi-nissa, had the kingdom of Numidia left to him by his father in conjunction with his brother Hiempsal and Jugurtha, b. c. 1 1 8. After the murder of his brother by Jugurtha, Adherbal fled to Rome and was restored to his share of the kingdom by the Romans in b. c. 117. But Adherbal was again stripped of his dominions by Jugurtha and be­sieged in Cirta, where he was treacherously killed by Jugurtha in B. c. 112, although he had placed himself under the protection of the Romans. (Sail. Jug. 5, 13, 14, 24, 25, 26; Liv. Ep. 63 ; Diod. Exc. xxxiv. p. 605. ed. Wess.) (l)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Numidia_220_BC-es.svg?uselang=fr

10- The Battle of Carthage:
a- was the major act of the Third Punic War between the Phoenician city of Carthage in Africa (a suburb of present-day Tunis) and the Roman Republic. It was a siege operation, starting sometime between 149 and 148 BC, and ending in the spring of 146 BC with the sack and complete destruction of the city of Carthage.
After a Roman army under Manius Manilius landed in Africa in 149 BC, Carthage surrendered and handed over hostages and arms. However, the Romans demanded the complete destruction of the city, and surprisingly to the Romans the city refused, the faction advocating submission overturned by one in favor of defense.
The Carthaginians manned the walls and defied the Romans, a situation which lasted for two years due to poor Roman commanders. In this period, the 500,000 Carthaginians inside the wall transformed the town into a huge arsenal. They produced about 300 swords, 500 spears, 140 shields and 1,000 projectiles for catapults daily.
The Romans elected the young but popular Scipio Aemilianus as consul, a special law being passed to lift the age restriction. Scipio restored discipline, defeated the Carthaginians in a field battle, and besieged the city closely, constructing a mole to block the harbor.
In the spring of 146 BC the Romans broke through the city wall but they were hard pressed to take the city. Every building, house and temple had been turned into a stronghold and every Carthaginian had taken up a weapon. The Romans were forced to move slowly, capturing the city house by house, street by street and fighting each Carthaginian soldier who fought with courage born of despair. Eventually after hours upon hours of house-to-house fighting, the Carthaginians surrendered. An estimated 50,000 surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery. The city was then leveled. The land surrounding Carthage was declared ager publicus, and it was shared between local farmers, and Roman and Italian ones.
Before the end of the battle, a dramatic event took place: the few survivors had found refuge in the temple of Eshmun, in the citadel of Byrsa, although it was already burning. They negotiated their surrender, but Scipio Aemilianus expressed that forgiveness was impossible either for Hasdrubal, the general who defended the city, or for the Roman deserters. Hasdrubal then left the Citadel to surrender and pray for mercy (he had tortured Roman prisoners in front of the Roman army). At that moment Hasdrubal's wife allegedly went out with her two children, insulted her husband, sacrificed her sons and jumped with them into a fire that the deserters had started. The deserters then jumped into the fire too, and Scipio Aemilianus started crying. He shouted a sentence from Homer, a prophecy about the destruction of Troy, that could be applied now to Carthage's end:(m)

Battle of Zama. File:Schlacht beiZama Gemälde H P Motte

b-"The story of the final stages of the war are difficult to understand. Our sources accuse Hasdrubal of trickery, to get rid of the other Hasdrubal (Adherbal); and we read about his cruel behavior towards his fellow citizens. Finally, we read that he opened negotiations with the Romans and betrayed his own city. It is hard to establish the truth of these stories, but it is reasonable to assume that the last story stems from Roman propaganda and was vented out to demoralize the last Carthaginian opposition."(n)

c- Unfortunately, the watchdog merely created new troubles. As an ally of Rome, Massinissa could always raid Carthaginian land. In 154, Carthage decided to strike back, and began to build an army. Immediately, the Romans investigated the case, and they tried to strike a compromise. But Massinissa's raids continued, and in 151, the Carthaginians declared war upon the Numidians.

Their commander was Hasdrubal, who was unable to defeat Massinissa, and accepted negotiations. A compromise would be made by the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus. However, during the negotiations, Hasdrubal's supplies ran out, and Massinissa charged again, destroying the Carthaginian army. When the survivors tried to return home, Massinissa's son Gulussa continued the attacks. The greatest disaster, however, was that this incident gave Rome the pretext it needed to intervene. And indeed, Rome declared war. After all, Carthage had taken an initiative in its foreign policy.

The Carthaginians immediately condemned Hasdrubal to death, blaming him for the entire war, and hoping to avoid war with Rome. However, Hasdrubal escaped, recruited a private army, started to besiege Carthage, and was received back when it became obvious that Rome wanted war anyhow. He was appointed as supreme commander, an office he had to share with a grandson of Massinissa, who was also called Hasdrubal (Adherbal). The Romans were already at the gates and the Carthaginians toiled day and night to prepare the city's defenses.(o)

III- Understanding from Definitions:

Cyrus the Great decided to make a succesful strategy to recover Croesus treasure, first by choosing the best soldiers from the Assyrian detachment in the Persian army, these soldiers they are known with hight qualities in fighting, like their ancetors the Hurrians. Their noble aim is to arrive to north Africa from Spain and then travel South East, East then North, to separate into two groups and intermarring the Nommade ( Gaetuli ), to create two strong tribes neighbours to Carthage, under two different names ( Masaesylii and Massylies ).
They achieved their objectif after 400 years following differents strategies and tactics; the significant clear signs of these strategies the battle of Zama and the fall of Carthage.

The story of the end of Hasdrubal the Boeotarch has many similarities compared to the story of the end of Croesus cited in the second dilemma within this blog (story of the pyre). we understand from the two stories that Hasdrubal the Boeotarch made a deal for his safety with Adherbal son of Micipsa to transfer all the carthagians treasures including Dido and Croesus treasures to the capital of Numidia which is Cirta that was the base of Adherbal.


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a- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great
b- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrians
c- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrians
d- Yildiz, pp. 17, ref 9
e- http://explorethemed.com/Assyrians.asp?c=1
f- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidians
g- The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 2 By J. Desmond Clark, J. D.. Fage, Roland Oliver, Richard Gray, John E.. Flint, G. N.. Sanderson, A. D.. Roberts, Michael Crowder p178
h- The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 2 edited by J. Desmond Clark p143
i- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidian_cavalry
j- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama
k- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasdrubal_the_Boeotarch
l- http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0028.html
m-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carthage_(c._149_BC
n- http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hasdrubal/hasdrubal5.html
o- http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hasdrubal/hasdrubal5.html

THE SECOND DILEMMA

From Croesus to Mago I


Croesus ( 595 BC – c. 547? BC) was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S. Evans remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology." Croesus was renowned for his wealth—Herodotus and Pausanias noted his gifts preserved at Delphi.


In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day.


Croesus is credited with the issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation.But they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis. King Croesus' gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC. In 546 BC, Croesus was defeated and captured by the Persians, who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.



Croesus' uneasy relations with the Greeks obscures the larger fact that he was the last bastion of the Ionian cities against the increasing Persian power in Anatolia. He began preparing a campaign against Cyrus the Great of Persia. Before setting out he turned to the Delphic oracle and the oracle of Amphiaraus to inquire whether he should pursue this campaign and whether he should also seek an alliance. The oracles answered, with typical ambiguity, that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire – this would become one of the most famous oracular statements from Delphi.


Croesus was also advised to find out which Greek state was most powerful and to ally himself with it.Croesus, now feeling secure, formed an alliance with Sparta in addition to those he had with Amasis II of Egypt and Nabonidus of Babylonia, and launched his campaign against the Persian Empire in 547 BC. He was intercepted near the Halys River in central Anatolia and an inconclusive battle was fought. As was usual in those days, the armies would disband for winter and Croesus did accordingly. Cyrus did not, however, and he attacked Croesus in Sardis, capturing him. It became clear that the powerful empire Croesus was about to destroy was his own.
In Bacchylides' ode, composed for Hiero of Syracuse, who won the chariot race at Olympia in 468, Croesus with his wife and family mounted the funeral pyre, but before the flames could envelop the king, he was snatched up by Apollo and spirited away to the Hyperboreans. Herodotus' version includes Apollo in more "realistic" mode: Cyrus, repenting of the immolation of Croesus, could not put out the flames until Apollo intervened.


Apollo's intervention


Herodotus tells us that in the Lydian account, Croesus was placed upon a great pyre by Cyrus' orders, for Cyrus wanted to see if any of the heavenly powers would appear to save him from being burned alive. The pile was set ablaze, and as Cyrus watched he saw Croesus call out "Solon" three times. He asked the interpreters to find out why he said this word with such resignation and agony. The interpreters returned the answer that Solon had warned Croesus of the fickleness of good fortune. This touched Cyrus, who realized that he and Croesus were much the same man, and he bade the servants to quench the blazing fire as quickly as they could. They tried to do this, but the flames were not to be mastered. According to the story, Croesus called out to Apollo and prayed to him. The sky had been clear and the day without a breath of wind, but soon dark clouds gathered and a storm with rain of such violence that the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus, convinced by this that Croesus was a good man, made Croesus an advisor who served Cyrus 'well' and later Cyrus's son by Cassandane, Cambyses. Recently, Stephanie West has argued that the historical Croesus did in fact die on the pyre, and that the stories of him as a 'wise adviser' to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar.


It is not known when exactly Croesus died, although it is traditionally dated 547 BC, after Cyrus' conquest. In the Nabonidus Chronicle it is said that Cyrus "marched against the country -- , killed its king, took his possessions, put there a garrison of his own." Unfortunately, all that remains of the name of the country are traces of the first cuneiform sign. It has long been assumed that this sign should have been LU, so that the country referred to would be Lydia, with Croesus as the king that was killed. However, J. Cargill has shown that this restoration was based upon wishful thinking rather than actual traces of the sign LU. Instead, J. Oelsner and R. Rollinger have both read the sign as Ú, which might imply a reference to Urartu. With Herodotus' account also being unreliable chronologically in this case, as J.A.S. Evans has demonstrated, this means that we have no way of dating the fall of Sardis; theoretically, it may even have taken place after the fall of Babylon. Evans also asks what happened after the episode at the pyre and suggests that "neither the Greeks nor the Babylonians knew what really happened to Croesus".


The Delphian god had received much gold and silver, and his priests had to explain why the pious worshipper had been punished.


http://www.livius.org/men-mh/mermnads/croesus.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croesus


NB:
Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man,  "rich as Croesus" 
The episode at the pyre  
Neither the Greeks nor the Babylonians knew what really happened to Croesus.
The pious worshiper. 


Mago I of Carthage (occasionally referred to as Magon) was the king of the Ancient Carthage from 550 BCE to 530 BCE and the founding monarch of the Magonid dynasty of Carthage. Mago I was originally a general. Under Mago, Carthage became preeminent among the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean.


Under Mago, Carthage established itself as the dominant Phoenician military power in the western Mediterranean. It remained economically dependent on Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, but acted increasingly independent. One of Mago's political achievements was an alliance with the Etruscans against the Ancient Greece. This alliance lasted until around the time when Rome expelled the Etruscan kings. He was also active in Sicily, and married a Syracusan wife.(a)


 With the arrival of Mago Carthaginian foreign policy appears to have changed dramatically. If previously Carthage had tentatively colonized the island of Ibiza on its own, it now took the lead, establishing itself firmly as the dominant Phoenician military power in the western Mediterranean. Although it still remained an economic dependent of Tyre, it now acted increasingly independently. 


If Mago was a ruler of Carthage, it is perhaps wrong to imagine him as a king. Far more Carthage had a Council of Elders and a People's Assembly. Though Mago appears to have dominated Carthaginian politics as 'tyrant'. The way though by which 'tyrants' were chosen remains obscure. It appears that there was some religious connection, as the Magonid dynasty was a lineage of warlike elected high priests. But it does seem as though they were elected for a limited amount of time and thereafter need to seek re-election. 


One of Mago's political achievements was a alliance with the Etruscans against the Greeks. This alliance should last until around the time when Rome expelled the Etruscan kings, for Rome itself now made a treaty with Carthage. Mago was succeeded by his son Hasdrubal, who was elected 'tyrant' eleven times.(b)


The reign of "Kings" in Carthage


Carthage was initially ruled by "kings", who were elected by the Carthaginian "senate" and served for a specific time period. The election took place in Carthage, and the kings at first were war leaders, civic administrators and performed certain religious duties. According to Aristotle, kings were elected on merit, not by the people but by the senate, and the post was not hereditary. However, the crown and military commands could also be purchased by the highest bidder. Initially these kings may have enjoyed near absolute power, which was curtailed as Carthage moved towards a more democratic government. Gradually, military command fell to professional officers, and a pair of suffets replaced the king in some of the civic functions and eventually kings were no longer elected. Records show that two families had held the kingship with distinction during 550-310 BC. The Magonid family produced several members who were elected kings between 550 BC and 370 BC, who were in the forefront of the overseas expansion of Carthage. Hanno "Magnus", along with his son and grandson, held the kingship for some years between 367 and 310 BC. Records of other elected kings or their impact on Carthaginian history are not available. The suffets, who would ultimately displace the kings, were elected by the people. Suffets would ultimately discard their military duties and become purely civic officials.(c)


NB:


One of Mago's political achievements was an alliance with the Etruscans against the Ancient Greece.
The crown and military commands could also be purchased by the highest bidder.
The Magonid dynasty was a lineage of warlike elected high priests


a-http://en.wikipedia.org
b-http://www.carthagelives.com/Earlyleaderscarth.htm
c-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Carthage


Conclusion


The pious and wealthy King Croesus lost his kingdom in Lydia to Cyrus the Great of Persia but he didn't loose his wealth (Treasures) and his rank of king.
Croesus managed to find himself the name of Mago I king of Carthage by bidding on the kingship with his treasures.


Understanding from the first Dilemma and the second Dilemma


When Troy was sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, he went to Carthage, then to Sicily and become the father of  the Etruscans.
When the Persian king Cyrus the Great captured Lydia Croesus left to Carthage and becomes it's  king by buying the monarch 

under the name of Mago I. So the alliance of Mago I with the Etruscans against the Greek was a polictical decision based on the origins.

It is highly possible that Nero was hunting not only for Dido's treasure but Mago's I treasure as well, he was sure that the existantance of a treasure in a cave in North Africa, he known that the information of the treasure went through priests as Aeneas had some of the prophecy, Croesus was a pious king and Caesellius Bassus was a priest. 

THE FIRST DILEMMA

Nero hunting  Dido's (Queen Elissa) treasure


In 65 AD, a Carthaginian man named Caesellius Bassus sailed to Rome, purchased a private audience with the Emperor Nero, and claimed that he had discovered, on his own property in northern Africa, a vast cave containing a massive amount of gold (magna vis auri, Tacitus, Annales 16.1). The cache wasn’t limited merely to gold coins, either. It was a veritable thesaurus of ancient, unwrought bullion, with heavy bars of solid gold both lying on the ground and stacked up in columns. The gold had been hidden there, Bassus explained, by someone who didn’t want the colonists of the new Carthaginian settlement to be distracted by an unhealthy preoccupation with luxury, and someone who didn’t want the hostile Numidian kings, motivated by a desire of the gold (cupidine auri, 16.1), to invade her burgeoning city. It had been hidden there, in other words, by Dido herself.


Of course, by the first century AD, the legend of Dido’s treasure had been circulating around the Mediterranean for close to a thousand years, and many Romans would have been familiar with the version of the story told in Vergil’s Aeneid. An earlier version of the myth, however, comes from Pompeius Trogus, a contemporary of Vergil who was probably following in the tradition of the Greek author Timaeus, and whose works were later documented by Justin. In this account, the Phoenician Dido (Elissa) is married to her uncle Acerbas, a wealthy priest who hides his substantial treasure (magnae opes, 18.4.6) in the earth to keep it concealed from Dido’s brother Pygmalion, the greedy king of Tyre. A rumor of this treasure quickly spreads throughout the city, and Pygmalion, inflamed with avarice, murders Acerbas without any proper regard for piety (sine respectu pietatis occidit, 18.4.8). Dido hates her brother for this terrible crime, but she conceals her feelings, telling Pygmalion that she plans to move back to the family residence so that she can get over the memory of Acerbas. Pygmalion expects Dido to bring the gold with her (existimans cum ea et aurum Acherbae ad se venturum, 18.4.11), but she has a more subversive plan in mind. She pretends to throw the precious treasure into the sea – the bags were actually filled with sand rather than money (onera harenae pro pecunia, 18.4.12) – and then sails away with members of the Tyrian aristocracy, first to Cyprus and then eventually on to the shores of Carthage.(a)


In addition, attempting to recover Dido’s treasure was a means of legitimizing and reinforcing Nero’s family connections to Aeneas, Venus, and Jupiter, a legendary mythology so important to the Julio-Claudian tradition. Furthermore, it is important to remember that gold was a quintessential symbol of Nero himself. This was, after all, an emperor who worked tirelessly to associate himself with the golden sun god Apollo – the apotheosis scene in Lucan’s Pharsalia (1.48), for example, specifically describes Nero climbing aboard Apollo’s chariot – and who built himself an opulent palace called the Domus Aurea. In short, Nero was attempting to recreate an Augustan Golden Age during his reign, and so whether or not he actually believed that he was going to find buried treasure in Carthage, the quest for Dido’s gold was a symbolic celebration of his public persona, and he had every political incentive to pursue it.(b)


The thesaurus of Phoenician gold appears again in Ovid’s Heroides. For most of the story, Ovid follows the Vergilian tradition, with the greedy Pygmalion murdering Sychaeus at a sacred altar in Phoenicia (coniunx mactatus ad aras, 7.113), driving his sister Dido into exile (exul agor, 7.115), and looming as a constant physical threat to her safety (est etiam frater, cuius manus impia poscit / respergi nostro sparsa cruore viri, 7.127-128). Unlike Dido in the Aeneid, however, Dido in the Heroides, desperate to persuade Aeneas to stay in Carthage, proposes that he accept the treasure of Sychaeus ( Acerbas) as part of a very lucrative dowry (in dotem . . . accipe . . . opes, 7.149-150). The prospect of becoming one of the wealthiest men in the Mediterranean world overnight may have been very tempting for Aeneas, especially since he had observed the Greek army plundering the treasures of his native land as he escaped from the city (Aeneid 2.761-766). But because Helenus had filled his ships with gold, silver, and ivory (Aeneid 3.463-471) before he arrived in Carthage, the incentive to accept such an offer wouldn’t have been nearly as strong. (c)


Jarbas , a king and priest of the Gaetulians, in Northern Africa, and a son of Jupiter (Zeus) Ammon by a Libyan nymph. He built many magnificent temples to his father, and desired to marry Dido on her arrival in Africa. He was so pressing in demanding the hand of Dido, that the queen, who would not marry him, according to some traditions, saw no other way of escape except by self destruction. (Virg. Aen. iv. 196, &c.; Ov. Heroid. vii. 125; Auson. Epigr. 118; Justin, xviii. 6.) (d)


Conclusion


Many Historians and sholars explained the expedition of Nero to recover Queen Dido's lost treasure as fellow:
Suetonius and Tacitus, both of whom are heavily biased against Nero, offer similar interpretations: Suetonius attributes the episode to Nero’s insanity (furorem, 31.4), Tacitus to his foolish vanity (vanitatem, 16.1). Rather than reading the treasure hunt as a simple example of Neronian madness, however, several scholars interpret it as an illustration of a sophisticated political agenda.


I have different interpretation to the expedition of Nero to recover Queen  Dido's lost treasure which is as fellow:
As we know that Aeneas is an ancetor of Nero from the Julius familly. The story of Queen Dido treasure was heard by Nero through the Julius familly before Bassus revealed it to him. The telling of the dream about the treasure to Nero enphasised the reality of it's existance .
After the Departure of Aeneas and the death of Dido Jarbas Helped himself with the Treasure.


NB:
Jarbas was the highest priest in Numidia during the 8th century BC
Bassus was a priet as well during the first century AD
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a- http://ancientcarthage.wikispaces.com/Dido%27s+Treasure
b- c- http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/a16000.htm
d- http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/I/Iarbas.html