Background
To the north of Roman-controlled Latium lay the Etruscan cities, and to the south of Roman-controlled Samnium lay the Greek city states of Magna Graecia: politically independent cities in southern Italia and Sicily, settled by Greek colonists in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Both in Sicily and on the mainland, conflict between all of these groups was ongoing. The Latin War (340–338 BC) had placed the Latium region under Roman dominance, if not outright control, and the resistance of the Samnites against Roman control was coming to an end with a few minor conflicts being the only remnants of the Samnite Wars (343–290 BC).
The patchwork of Italian and Sicilian cultures and nations had resulted in continuing conflicts and territory changes, which in recent decades had seen an expansion of Roman influence over Italy. Rome was, however, a "local Italian concern", never having tried its hand in the larger international affairs of the Mediterranean, nor pitted its military strength against any of the dominant Greek cultures. The Pyrrhic war would change both of these facts.
Read more about this topic: Pyrrhic War
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)