Pyrrhus sends Cineas to Rome in 278 BCE to renew negotiations on easier terms but these talks, too, are inconclusive.

Cineas then crosses to Sicily to prepare for Pyrrhus' Sicilian campaign.

Pyrrhus follows and, as “king of Sicily,” aids the island's Greeks against Carthage, conquering most of the Punic province except …

…Lilybaeum (Marsala).

The despotic methods employed by Pyrrhus provoke a revolt of the Greek Sicilians, and in 276 (or early 275), he returns to Italy.

On his departure, the Syracusans appoint as commander of the troops his supporter Hiero, who strengthens his position by marrying the daughter of Leptines, the city's leading citizen.