full of things partly known and partly fancied. There was much left for explorers and civilizers to do.

Favorable Location

of Rome

The next people to take up the work of civilizers were the Romans, that small tribe whom the Greek traders, 700 years before Christ, had found living as simple farmers on the western plains of central Italy. In these early days the Romans were but one part of the Latin tribe, and Latins were but one of many tribes in Italy. Rome had about her only a small circle of land of perhaps a hundred square miles. But the city was fortunately located. It was on the Tiber River, up which the small seagoing ships of the time could row. Yet it was twelve miles from the seashore and therefore safe from the pirates, who were the pests of the coast towns. At this spot on the

time to prepare against them. Her men, besides, were hearty and brave and loved their city with intense patriotism. They saw her surrounded by enemies. In the fertile plains north of her was Etruria, a nation of skillful artists and builders and sailors, eager to grow into a greater state with wider lands. To the south was the rich country of "Great Greece," with its beautiful

cities and busy workshops and its boats coming and going. In the hills to the east were barbarous, warlike tribes who swooped down upon Rome like robber bands. All about her were other Latin cities, all hoping to grow great at the expense of their neighbors. In the early days hardly a year passed that the Romans did not have to fight for their lives. If Rome was to live, she needed to make herself stronger than her neighbors and to subdue them. So the Romans raised their arms against first one Latin city and then another, and compelled them all to bow to Rome. Then trouble began with Etruria, the foreign neighbor to the north. There were years of warfare, until at last she was conquered. Rome next turned her hand against the other tribes of Italy. Sometimes she was beaten in bloody battles, but in general she won and kept adding new lands to her territory.

Rome

Mistress of Italy

280-275

As she worked southward in her conquests, Rome met the rich cities of Magna Græcia. They felt that they could not allow this new barbarian power, as they called it, to grow too great. They took B.C. the side of Rome's enemies, and even invited a warrior prince of Greece over into Italy to help them. Rome patiently fought with him and lost, and filled up her ranks with new men and fought again, waiting until his army should be worn out in this hostile land. After five years it was done; and the prince fled back to Greece. Soon all of southern Italy was in the hands of Rome, and by 266 B.C. she was mistress of all the land from the Arno River to the southern tip of the country- a great territory 500 miles long.

Roman Life

What sort of people were these victorious Romans, these masters of Italy? Suppose that by some magic

you could be transported back to the year 200 B.C., carried for thousands of miles across the ocean, and set down in ancient Athens and then in ancient Rome. The City The two cities would seem to you much alike. In both you would see hills and a stone wall stretching about them. In both, low, flat-roofed houses would be packed close along crooked streets, with no room for

lawns or parks. In Rome and Athens alike you would see a market-place lying among hills, with public buildings and statues of heroes and gods standing around it. In each market-place you would find men gathered for some public meeting. Both peoples would be in strange garments much alike the common men in short chitons leaving neck, arms, and legs bare; the gentlemen with trailing, shawl-like cloaks wrapped around their bodies. Both peoples would be speaking a language strange to you.

You would find the heart and the head of the city of Rome to be this market-place, or "Forum." You could walk the length of it in ten minutes, yet it was one of the most famous and most important places in the world. Every spot of ground here was made holy by old events and story. On the hills that surrounded it had been the little villages that had later grown into great Rome. For more generations than men know, the ancestors of the Romans had been busy in this little marshy valley lying below the hills. Women had drawn water at the springs there. Men had met in the open space to consult upon laws or to prepare for war. There had been the market for buying and selling. Here the king had had his house. Romulus, the founder of Rome and the first of her kings, lay buried here, men said. Temple after temple had been built, and smoke and song continually rose from them to the gods.

The Forum

As you walked the Forum, layer upon layer of older pavements and of older buildings would lie buried under your feet, and every spot would seem too old and too sacred to be trodden upon. Yet men would be hurrying about here on all sorts of business. A young nobleman with a crowd of friends and slaves surrounding him would be walking before the goldsmith shops that bordered the road on the southern side. A sick man in a curtained litter would be carried past you to drink the waters of the fountain of Juturna and to lie in a little room, waiting for the god of healing to visit him.

You might, perhaps, stand with a great crowd before the rostrum, or speaker's platform, and hear an orator speak to the people concerning a new law. You would see a man carrying some gift enter a temple, hoping to win the gods' help in a voyage he was about to make.

ROMANS GOING TO MAKE SACRIFICE

This and the next picture are of reliefs carved on a Roman altar.
All of the men but one are wearing the shawl-like toga over the tunic

Along the north side of the Forum you would find a street lined with butchers' booths and fish stalls, where gentlemen with hosts of friends and slaves would be buying meat for the evening's banquet. Business and religion and politics went hand in hand in the Roman Forum.

Just as every family had a house and a hearth with a fire ever burning on it, so the great family of Rome had a house and a hearth and a hearth fire. The little round temple of Vesta, the home goddess, stood in the Forum. In it on an altar burned the sacred fire of the city, started afresh by the high priest every New Year's Day, and burning to the.year's end. Six noble Religion maidens of Rome were chosen to guard it. They were called Vestal Virgins, and they gave up their lives to being the daughters of Rome, guardians of her fire, mistresses of her house, makers of her holy bread, performers of her sacrifices, keepers of her most precious relics.

Close to the temple of Vesta was the house where lived