Beginning in 480BCE, Carthage had fought a series of inconclusive wars against the Greek city states of Sicily, led by Syracuse. By 264BCE Carthage was the dominant external power on the island, and Carthage and Rome were the preeminent powers in the western Mediterranean. Relationships were good and the two states had several times declared their mutual friendship via formal alliances: in 509BCE, 348BCE and around 279BCE. There were strong commercial links. During the Pyrrhic War of 280–275BCE, against a king of Epirus who alternately fought Rome in Italy and Carthage on Sicily, Carthage provided materiel to the Romans and on at least one occasion used its navy to ferry a Roman force. According to the classicist Richard Miles, Rome's expansionary attitude after southern Italy came under its control combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to Sicily caused the two powers to stumble into war more by accident than design. The immediate cause of the war was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city state of Messana (modern Messina). In 264BCE Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War.