The news last week that the mayors of Rome and Carthage have signed a treaty in Tunis officially ending the Third Punic War comes as no surprise, since the hostilities ended in 146 B.C. when the Roman army sacked and razed Carthage.

That ended 95 years of hostilities between the two ancient superpowers. The third war had been provoked by the hawk of the Roman senate, M. Portius Cato (the elder), with his oft-repeated demand: ''Carthage, methinks, ought to be destroyed.''

Rome and Carthage, of course, are no longer the powers they once were, but it is still nice to see they have finally resolved their differences.