Other than mead, which was often more expensive (and hard to make) and not especially popular, Italians in the Roman world drank pretty much exclusively wine, as far as alcohol went. Distillation was unknown in antiquity, and while beer has existed since earliest antiquity it was extremely uncommon in the Roman world, to the point that the beer-drinking habits of Germans and Egyptians were an object of some ridicule. Fruit wines, especially date wine, were known to the Romans, but the ubiquity of grape wine throughout all levels of society cannot be understated--the three most important crops of the ancient Mediterranean were grain, olives, and grapes, which were used to make wine and rarely as food themselves. By late antiquity and even the Principate beer was making substantial inroads among the poor, but a common substitute for good wine (other than, you know, just buying shittier stuff) was from a very early date posca, which was made by mixing nearly-soured must with water. However, to quote the New Pauly, "The everyday beverage and primary beverage of all classes, age groups and sexes was undoubtedly water"--the idea that the poor might be forced to consume alcohol over water is, at least for the Romans, absurd, given the great lengths to which magistrates would go to provide the best water