From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (London, 1880)
ACERBAS, a Tyrian priest of Hercules, who married Elissa, the daughter of king Mutgo, and sister of Pygmalion. He was possessed of considerable wealth, which, knowing the avarice of Pygmalion, who had succeeded his father, be concealed in the earth. But Pygmalion, who heard of these bidden treasures, had Acerbas murdered, in hopes that through his sister he might obtain possession of them. But the prudence of Elissa saved the treasures, and she emigrated from Phoenicia. (Justin. xviii. 4.) In this account Acerbas is the same person as Sichaeus, and Elissa the same as Dido in Virgil. (Aen. i. 343, 348, &c.) The names in Justin are undoubtedly more correct than in Virgil; for Servius (ad Aen. i. 343) remarks, that Virgil here, as in other cases, changed a foreign name into one more convenient to him, and that the real name of Sichaeus was Sicharbas, which seems to be identical with Acerbas.
L. S.
An original e-text for everything2. I scanned, OCR'd, formatted, and linked this text - it is not available in any format on any other web site. All Greek words are transliterated into Latin characters.