By 290 BC, at the end of the three Samnite Wars, Rome had established her hegemony over parts of central and southern Italy, cemented through alliances with various Italic peoples in central Italy. To the south of the Roman sphere of influence there were a few city-states founded by Greek settlers from the 8th to the 6th century BC (primarily on the coasts of Calabria and Basilicata and in eastern and southern Sicily). Tarentum on the coast of Bruttium and Lucania was the largest and most powerful. The Tarentines attacked a Roman fleet off their coast. As a result, Rome declared war.