other Italian names such as Velletri, Velino—­still given to this locality, where a church stood in the middle ages called S. Silvestro in Lacu, commemorates the existence of the primeval lake; while the legend of the casting ashore of Romulus and Remus on the slope of the Palatine points to the gradual desiccation of the spot.  On the level ground, recovered in this way from the waters, was formed the Roman Forum; the word Forum meaning simply an open space, surrounded by buildings and porticoes, which served the purpose of a market-place, a court of justice, or an exchange; for the Romans transacted more of their public and private business out of doors than the severe climate of our northern latitudes will permit us to do.  On this common ground representatives of the separate communities located on the different hills of Rome, and comprehended and confederated within the walls of Servius Tullius, met together for the settlement of affairs that concerned them all.  As Rome grew in importance, so did this central representative part of it grow with it, until at last, in the time of the Caesars, it became the heart of the mighty empire, where its pulse beat loudest.  There the fate of the world was discussed.  There Cicero spoke, and Caesar ruled, and Horace meditated.  If the Temple of Jerusalem was the shrine of religion, the Forum of Rome was the shrine of law; and from thence has emanated that unrivalled system of jurisprudence which has formed the model of every nation since.  Being thus the centre of the political power of the empire, the Roman Forum became also the focus of its architectural and civic splendour.  It was crowded with marble temples, state buildings, and courts of law to such an extent that we wonder how there was room for them all within such a narrow area.  Monuments of great men, statues of Greek sculpture, colonnades, and porticoes, rich with the spoils of subject kingdoms, adorned its sides.  The whole region was resplendent with all the pomp and luxury of paganism in its proudest hour; the word “ambition,” which came ultimately to signify all strivings for eminence, resolving itself into the elementary meaning of a walk round the Roman Forum, canvassing for votes at municipal elections.

Thus the Forum continued until the decay of the empire, when hordes of invaders buried its magnificence in ruins.  At the beginning of the seventh century it must have been open and comparatively free from debris, as is proved by the fact that the column of Phocas, erected, at that time, stood on the original pavement.  Virgil says, in his account of the romantic interview of Evander with AEneas on the spot which was to be afterwards Rome—­then a quiet pastoral scene, green with grass, and covered with bushes—­that they saw herds of cattle wandering over the Forum, and browsing on the rich pasture around the shores of its blue lake.  Strange, the law of circularity, after the lapse of two thousand years, brought round the same state of things in that storied