Pyrrhic War
With the end of the Samnite Wars, Rome had established itself as the lord of central Italy. Conflict with the Greek city-states (Magna Graecia) of southern Italy was unavoidable as its influence grew in the Mediterranean. In the early third century BC, the Lucanians and Bruttians continued to attack these Greek settlements, and in 283 BC, they appealed to the Roman provincial power for assistance. Tarentum was the most powerful city in Magna Graecia at the time.