A delicacy in Ancient Rome! If you wanted to show off your wealth, you'd weigh the fattest dormouse you could get in front of your guests before serving it in a fancy dinner. The fatter, the more impressive!
Romans ate weird shit. They used to eat peacock just cause of its look but I don't think they taste great. Romans pretty much ate every animal they encountered.
Except for gorillas which they once encountered and thought they were a race of wild people, so they didn't identify them as animals.
"The Carthaginians hurry away in fear and reach lands where there are many flames. A very tall mountain is there. Finally arriving at a bay, the "Horn of the South", there is an island with hostile, hirsute (hairy) men named "Gorillas""
I think they were held in earlier times as a deliverer of meat, for people who lived in cities and didn't have the space to hold pig. I guess? It would make sense.