Rome commissioner bans 'centurions'

(ANSA) - Rome, November 25 - Rome Commissioner Francesco Paolo Tronca cracked down on the costumed centurions to be seen around the city's ancient monuments on Wednesday with an ordinance banning them from posing for photographs with tourists.
    The men in leather sandals, pleated tunics, and armored breastplates who pose with tourists for a fee can make several hundreds of euros a day from the trade. "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," the 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.