Thursday 5 February 2015

All quiet on the Punic front

Amid the rolling Great War centenary commemorations, almost everybody seems to have forgotten that today marks  the 30th anniversary of the end of the Third Punic War. Well, sort of...

According to the Wikipedia entry for February the 5th, on this day in 1985 'Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.'

Publication of the official inquiry into the Third Punic War is expected in due course. Asked whether anyone was taking an "unreasonable" amount of time to make their response to his draft findings, Maximus Procrastinatus stated: 'As of today, I have no reason to think that anyone is seeking to spin out time.' Key figures in the decision to go to war, including Cato the Elder, have rejected claims they are holding up the process and say they want the report released as soon as possible.

Trivia bonus - the Third Punic War also features in Wikipedia's list of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity, from which I learn that World War One never really ended, as Costa Rica is still technically at war with the German Empire.

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