Meat and seafood

Butcher's meat was a rare luxury. Pork, particularly sausages, was the most popular meat. Beef was uncommon in ancient Rome, but more prevalent in ancient Greece; neither Juvenal nor Horace mention it. More commonly seen were seafood, game, and poultry, particularly ducks and geese. In his victory, Caesar, for example, served a public feast to 260,000 poorer people that included all three of these delicacies but no butcher's meat. According to John E. Stambaugh, meat "was scarce except for sacrifices and the supper feasts of the rich." Cows were valued for their milk, while bulls were valued as plow and draft animals. Working animal meat was rough and unappealing. The veal was consumed on occasion. Apicius provides only four recipes for beef, but the same recipes include variations for lamb or hog. There are just two recipes for beef stew and veal scallopini.

Dormice were considered a delicacy and were eaten. Wealthy Romans considered it a status symbol, and some even had dormice weighed in front of dinner guests. A sumptuary rule passed under Marcus Aemilius Scaurus prohibited the consumption of dormice but did not put an end to the practice.

The meat was less prevalent than fish. Aquaculture has advanced to the point where large-scale companies devoted to oyster cultivation existed. The Romans also practiced snail and oak grub farming. Some fish, such as mullet raised at the Cosa fishery, were highly valued and sold for high prices.