The major cereal crops of the ancient Mediterranean region were wheat, emmer, and barley, while common vegetables included peas, beans, fava, and olives, dairy products came mostly from sheep and goats, and meat, which was consumed on rare occasion for most people, usually consisted of pork, beef, and lamb.[82] Agriculture in ancient Greece was hindered by the topography of mainland Greece that only allowed for roughly 10% of the land to be cultivated properly, necessitating the specialized exportation of oil and wine and importation of grains from Thrace (centered in what is now Bulgaria) and the Greek colonies of southern Russia. During the Hellenistic period, the Ptolemaic Empire controlled Egypt, Cyprus, Phoenicia, and Cyrenaica, major grain-producing regions that mainland Greeks depended on for subsistence, while the Ptolemaic grain market also played a critical role in the rise of the Roman Republic.