By the 6th century BC, the Etruscans had developed the subsistence farming of their forebears into a highly efficient and diverse system.
The bases of the economy were wheat, pulses, grapes (for wine) and olives (for oil), cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Other crops were also grown, such as barley and oats. Chickens, horses and bees were also eventually kept. Some farms specialized in particular crops or animals, particularly grapes and olives, horses, fine cattle or sheep for wool. Hunting, which had been a general way of supplementing the diet, now became an aristocratic pastime.
The Etruscans devised many ways of intensifying agriculture, including terracing and drainage using underground channels. Farming was also the basis of the Roman state. Initially, Rome's armies were made up of full-time farmers, fighting in the slack part of the agricultural year.
Only later was there a professional army, and the land-grant made to a soldier on his discharge after his period of service emphasizes the importance that continued to be attached to farming and land-ownership into imperial times. The Romans, however, were not generally agricultural innovators.
