The city of Rome itself abounds in places and objects of interest more easily reached than the Campagna. It requires at least a teaspoonful of information to appreciate the features of Rome; and to those who are mentally equipped no spot furnishes keener enjoyment than the Forum. An impressive view can be had looking eastward from the Capitol, one of the “seven hills” on which the early city sat. It can be seen that the Forum lies in a valley nearly surrounded by hills. In the tenth and ninth centuries B. C. these hilltops were occupied by villages and the valleys between them were marshes. In the eighth century the villages united to form one city,--Rome,--and the marshes were gradually drained by means of sewers. The low area became at that time the Forum, “marketplace” of the new city. It is an approximate oblong, on the north side of which one of the kings marked off a space,--the comitium (assembly-place),--in which all the citizens met to vote on questions of public importance. Adjoining the comitium was the senate-house. King (afterward two consuls), senate, and popular assembly constituted the government. The Forum was therefore the political center of Rome, and from this circumstance it derives all its interest. When one reflects that for nearly five centuries after the downfall of the kings (509-27 B.C.) Rome was a republic, that during that time she conquered and organized in her empire practically the whole Mediterranean basin, we begin to understand that this spot must have been the scene of stupendous political conflicts, the birthplace of far-reaching legislative and administrative measures. Here worked the brain of the best organized and most enduring empire the world has known. [Illustration: CLOACA MAXIMA] An essential feature of the Roman government was religion, which the senate and magistrates well knew how to operate for practical ends. It is not surprising, therefore, to find about the Forum the ruins of many temples. There is the temple of Saturn, now only a group of columns. It rests on an unusually high foundation. Within this basement were chambers which contained the treasury of the state. It was largely by the control of the treasury that the senate long maintained its political supremacy.