Men posing as centurions and the rickshaws that used to ply their trade among tourists at Rome's monuments have disappeared as of Thursday.
Rome Commissioner Francesco Paolo Tronca cracked down on the costumed centurions on Wednesday with an ordinance banning them from posing for photographs with tourists for a fee.
Rickshaws who offered tourists an alternative to horse-drawn buggies were seized in the interests of "urban security and decorum" ahead of the pope's Jubilee, city sources said.
"The ban is imposed in the interests of security - in so far as the people performing such activities often behave in ways that are inappropriate, insistent and sometimes aggressive - and to protect the decency of the city's artistic, historic and monumental heritage," Tronca's ordinance read. In September, a TV crew from Romania's Kanal D were attacked and insulted by a group of men dressed as Roman centurions at the Colosseum. The culprits were caught on camera while trying to extort 100 euros from one of the reporters. When the journalist refused, the fake centurions responded with anti-Romanian racist epithets, insults, and threats.
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