31 
The Roman Forum.—Such, too, was the origin of the 
oreat Forum of Rome, the most famous spot in classical an- 
tiquity. (Plate 2.) For half a thousand years all European 
~ivilization was ruled from this place. But long before there 
was any Roman state and while the Romans were still a small 
and struggling provincial people, this forum had been a market 
place for cattle. Before the dawn of history the Campagnian 
peasant drove his herds into what was later destined to be the 
political center of the world, to barter them for the goods of 
other traders who also congregated there. There being no 
currency, goods were at first valued according to the number 
of cattle they sold for—a custom which was responsible for 
the derivation of the Latin word pecunia (money) from pecus 
"a herd). 
But the most remarkable thing about the Roman Forum 
is that it came again to perform its original function. Cen- 
turies have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire. The 
temples, the triumphal arches, the rostra with the war beaks of 
‘he captured fleets of Carthage where Cicero and Antony spoke 
—all these former symbols of the might of Rome have largely 
disappeared. The Forum today is a forlorn and desolate spot, 
marked only by shattered masonry and broken columns. The 
Roman people itself as a racial entity has long since ceased to 
exist. But until comparatively recent times the Forum again 
served as a cattle market—the campo wvaccino, as the Italians 
called it—into which the Campagnian peasants again drove 
their cattle to sell. Thus this spot between the seven hills of 
Rome, which started as a cattle market, then became the polit- 
ical center of the world, and finally reverted again to a cattle 
market, affords a striking illustration of how deeply rooted and 
fundamental market places often are to mankind. 
ORGANIZED SECURITY MARKETS 
Marketing in Imperial Rome.—The purchase and sale of 
debts and money were conducted in imperial Rome, and per- 
haps even earlier in republican Athens. It is interesting to 
note that even in ancient Rome the financial and commercial