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Fascist Italy had long-term plans for the establishment of a new Roman Empire, which included [[Greece]]. Italy’s immediate reason for seeking war with [[Greece ]] was a desire to emulate its German ally’s triumphs. Mussolini also wanted to reassert Italy’s interest in the [[Balkans]] (he was piqued that Romania, an Italian client, had accepted German protection for its Ploesti oil fields earlier in October) and secure bases from which the British eastern Mediterranean outposts could be attacked. As the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was perceived as too strong, the obvious victim was [[Greece]], which the Italians thought to be weak and internally divided. Furthermore, Italy had been occupying the predominantly-Greek [[Dodecanese]] islands in the southeastern [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] since [[1911]].

After the Greco-Turkish treaty of [[1930 ]] and the [[Balkan Pact]] of [[1934]], the threat from Greece's traditional enemy, Turkey, was no more. Albania was too weak to be a threat and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia did not seriously press its claims on southern [[Macedonia]]. Therefore, during the [[1930s]], the main threat was perceived to be Bulgaria and her aspirations to reclaim [[Western Thrace]]. Thus, when, in [[1936]], [[Ioannis Metaxas|Metaxas]] came to power in [[Greece]], plans had been laid down for the reorganization of the country's armed forces and for a fortified defensive line along the Greco-Bulgarian frontier. The line was constructed under Metaxas' regime and named after the dictator: the [[Metaxas Line|Grammi Metaxa]]. During the following years, the Army benefited from great investments aiming at its modernization: it was technologically upgraded, enlarged, largely re-equipped and as a whole dramatically improved from its previous deplorable state. The Greek government purchased new arms for the three Armies, and the Navy was added new ships. However, due to the increasing threat and the eventual outbreak of the war, the most significant purchases from abroad, made during the years [[1938–]]-[[1939]], were never or only partially delivered. Also, a massive contingency plan was developed and great amounts of food and utilities were stockpiled by the Army in many parts of [[Greece ]] for the eventuality of war.

In early [[1939]], Italian troops occupied Albania, long under Italian influence, thereby gaining an immediate border with [[Greece]]. This new development cancelled all previous plans, and hasty preparations started for the event of an Italian attack. As war exploded in Central Europe, [[Ioannis Metaxas |Metaxas]] tried to keep Greece out of the conflict, but as the conflict progressed, Metaxas felt increasingly closer to Great Britain, encouraged by the ardent anglophile [[King George II]], who provided the main support for the regime. This was ironic for [[Ioannis Metaxas|Metaxas]], who had always been a germanophile and who had built strong ties with Hitler's Germany.

A mounting propaganda campaign against [[Greece ]] was launced in mid-[[1940 ]] in Italy, and the repeated acts of provocation, such as overflights of Greek territory, reached their peak with the torpedoing and sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli in [[Tinos]] on [[August 15]], [[1940]] (a national religious holiday), by an Italian submarine. Despite undeniable evidence of Italian responsibility, the Greek government announced that the attack had been carried out by a submarine of "unknown nationality". Although the façade of neutrality was thus preserved, the people were well aware of the real perpetrator.