More than 2,000 years after Carthage sent Hannibal and his elephants across the Alps in pursuit of the Romans, and Rome in turn retaliated by assaulting and razing Carthage, the two cities are officially making peace.

The mayors of Rome and Carthage will sign a symbolic friendship and collaboration pact in a ceremony at the ruins of ancient Carthage, near modern Tunis, early next month, a spokesman for Rome’s Communist Mayor Ugo Vetere said Friday.

Tunisian and Italian authorities have talked for some time about a gesture of reconciliation over the three bitterly foughtPunic Wars.

Arab League Secretary General Chedli Klibi, a Tunisian who holds the honorary title of mayor of Carthage, took the initiative by handing Vetere a draft treaty when he visited the Italian capital last week.


Rome embarked on the last Punic War after Cato the Censor--producing green figs picked in Carthage to show how close the enemy lay--declared, “Carthage must be destroyed.”