..are a strong confirmation. That emmer porridge, rather than bread, was the staple of the Romans" (Pliny, cited by Purcell, 2003). In the households that had kitchen quarters, Roman women baked their own bread. Those who live in one room apartments had to purchase their food ready made because they had no room for preparing food. Wine is also extremely important in the Roman diet and had a high religious significance, too. The population had also access to meat from game and domestic animal and the rest of the products resulted from animal rising. By the year 273, Rome became one of the most powerful forces around the Mediterranean sea. A few years later, in 267, the Roman regained the last of the Greek controlled territories in the southern Italian Peninsula. "The conquest of Italy provided political stability and the opportunities for trade such stability invariably brings. Yet the brutal warfare which had been necessary for this to be achieved had laid waste large tracts of land. Areas which had once supported large populations now merely hosted a few herdsmen who tended the flocks...

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