On August 8th, A.D. 117 Marco Ulpio Nerva Traiano died, the optimus princeps who brought the Roman Empire to its maximum extent.

What does it mean to build an Empire?

And what is the relationship between the Roman Empire and current Europe?

Politics, economics, welfare, all-out military conquests; inclusion of different populations under a single State that governs with laws that are still today the basis of modern jurisprudence; good administration, also influenced by capable women, authoritative "first ladies"; communication campaigns and persuasion to obtain popular consensus through public utility works, "magnificentia publica" and private but discreet luxury.

It is not the plot of a fiction, nor the program of some politicians, but the trace of the Trajan exhibition. Building the Empire, creating Europe, conceived by Claudio Parisi Presicce and curated by Marina Milella, Simone Pastor and Lucrezia Ungaro to celebrate the 1900 year-anniversary of the death of the emperor who brought the Empire to its maximum expansion.