Trajan illuminated as 'pop' emperor

(ANSA) - Rome, November 28 - A new Rome show on Roman emperor Trajan aims to show his 'pop' side, spanning the senses of being hugely popular with the Roman people and Senate and the original vision of a ruler who left the capital monuments admired through the Renaissance like his famed column and markets, curators said Tuesday.
    The show, Trajan, Building an Empire, Creating Europe, runs from Wednesday until September 16 2018 in the run-up to the 1900th anniversary of the death of Rome's first non-Italian ruler, a Spaniard Pliny the Younger called the "best of emperors".
    Trajan himself called himself "an ordinary man who lived an exceptional life" and said "I was just the right man in the right place".
    The show at his markets, one of the most keenly awaited ones of the year, is the brainchild of Capitoline superintendent Claudio paris Presicce and has been curated by Lucrezia Ungaro, Marina Milella and Simone Pastor.
    It charts Trajan's conquests, notably in Dacia, and the high reputation he enjoyed despite, or perhaps because of, a certain sexual laxity and fondness for wine, among other things.