ROME - Men dressed up as Roman centurions and rickshaws have disappeared from the Eternal City. Rome Commissioner Francesco Paolo Tronca has decided to ban the fake centurions, who take photos with tourists for a fee.

  According to the ordinance, the main reason for the ban is to ensure urban security. The men posing as centurions, who earn up to several hundred euros per day, often are quite insistent and sometimes even behave aggressively. By eliminating costumed centurions as well as the rickshaws drivers, the commissioner wants to protect historic and cultural heritage and decency in Rome, which are especially important in the run up to the upcoming Jubilee.

  As a result of the ban, the fake centurions decided to protest on Thursday close to the Trevi Fountain. "I feel like someone who has been unfairly dismissed,” said one of them. "All the illegal vendors from Bangladesh continue to sell umbrellas everywhere but I can not work?" he asked and stressed, that "in the city that holds the shame of the Mafia Capitale, less than 50 men dressed up as centurions are not the main problem."

  However, the men are not going to resign from their work, instead of posing close to the monuments they will do the same on the streets surrounding the large squares of Rome, where the ban does not apply.

  ms