The last peace with the Carthaginians was made forty years before this, in the consulate of Quintus Lutatius and Aulus Manlius.

The war commenced twenty-three years afterwards, in the consulate of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius.

It was concluded in the seventeenth year, in the consulate of Cneius Cornelius and Publius Aelius Paetus.
It is related that Scipio frequently said afterwards, that first the ambition of Tiberius Claudius, and afterwards of Cneius Cornelius, were the causes which prevented his terminating the war by the destruction of Carthage.

The Carthaginians, finding difficulty in raising the first sum of money to be paid, as their finances were exhausted by a protracted war, and in consequence great lamentation and grief arising in the senate-house, it is said that Hannibal was observed laughing; and when Hasdrubal Haedus rebuked him for laughing amid the public grief, when he himself was the occasion of the tears which were shed, he said: "If, as the expression of the countenance is discerned by the sight, so the inward feelings of the mind could be distinguished, it would clearly appear to you that that laughter which you censure came from a heart not elated with joy, but frantic with misfortunes.

And yet it is not so ill-timed as those absurd and inconsistent tears of yours.