Therefore the fertile region from which Rome drew its local resources consisted of Italy’s western uplands and plains. These stretched from the foothills of the Alps in the east down through Etruria and past Rome to Campania in the south. This region comprised the Roman heartland – the chunk of Italy that Rome would have to hold at all costs if it were to survive. Apples, olives and cereals all grew well here, but even at this relatively early stage in the city’s development, the urban mass of Rome
