Editing Agriculture in ancient Rome (section)

===Grains===
Staple crops in early Rome were [[millet]], and [[emmer]] and [[spelt]] which are species of wheat.  According to the Roman scholar [[Varro]], [[common wheat]] and [[durum wheat]] were introduced to [[Italy]] as crops about 450 BC.<ref>Fussell, G. E. (January 1967), "Farming Systems of the Classical Era," ''Technology and Culture,'' Vol. 8, No. l, p 22</ref><ref> James, Bruce R., Diazzi, Carmelo, and Blum, Winfried E. H. (2014), "Bread and Soil in Ancient Rome: A Vision of Abundance and an Ideal of Order Based on Wheat, Grapes, and Olives," [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308170675_Bread_and_Soil_in_Ancient_Rome_A_Vision_of_Abundance_and_an_Ideal_of_Order_Based_on_Wheat_Grapes_and_Olives]. Accessed 10 Nov 2018 </ref> Durum (hard) wheat became the preferred grain of urban Romans, because it could be baked into leavened bread and was easier to grow in the Mediterranean region than common (soft) wheat.<ref>Erdkamp, Paul, "The Food Supply of the Capital," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome, '' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 262-263</ref><ref>James ''et al, p. 165</ref> Grains, especially baked into bread, were the staple of the Roman diet, providing 70 to 80 percent of the calories in an average diet.<ref>Rosenstein, Nathan (2013), "Agriculture, Roman Republic," ''Encyclopedia of Ancient History,'' https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah20007, Accessed 9 Nov 2018.</ref> [[Barley]] was also grown extensively, dominating grain production in Greece and on poorer soils where it was more productive than wheat.  Wheat was the preferred grain, but barley was widely eaten and also important as animal feed.<ref>Jasy, Naum (1950), "The daily bread of the Ancient Greeks and Romans," ''Ostria,'', Vol. 9, pp. 231-233. Downloaded from [[JSTOR]].</ref>

In ''De re rustica'' [[Columella]] wrote that emmer was more resistant to moisture than wheat. According to Columella four types of emmer were cultivated, including one variety that he calls Clusian (named for the town [[Clusium]]).<ref>Columella, ''De re rustica'', 2.6.3-4</ref> Cato wrote that if sowing grain in humid or dewy soils was unavoidable, they should be sown alongside turnips, panic grass, millet and [[rapeseed]].<ref>Cato, ''De agricultura'', 6.1</ref>
 
Despite listing [[panicum]] and millet among the [[legumes]] Columella says they should be considered grain crops "for in many countries the peasants subsist on food made from them".<ref>Columella, ''De re Rustica'', 2.9.17</ref>