Even lower class Roman citizens living in Rome and its environs could enjoy what was considered luxury items thanks to the grain dole and like provided by the Roman state. Considering bread tended to represent a big proportion of income for most people the state subsiding that item freed up a lot of income for luxury items in this case meat. Most of these luxury food items would have been imported from throughout Rome’s Empire.
In one episode of "Connections", James Burke holds up a large piece of black bread, and gave me another insight to earlier days. He said that bread REALLY was the Staff of Life - everything you ate with bread was a side dish. As things got better, appetites changed.
I think of that every time I see a vid of German soldiers in the East, wolfing down a huge slab of black bread.