Julius Caesar

The creators of Asterix have made Julius Caesar an exceptional character, taking care not to caricaturise this historical notable whose “Comments on the Gallic War” has been a major source of inspiration for them.

Just observing the statuesque figure that Albert Uderzo often gives him is enough to show you how much the authors of Asterix respect him. And even though he is irate and authoritarian, Julius Caesar is not depicted as a merciless dictator, but as someone who is capable of acknowledging the Gauls when they occasionally help him out of a bind. Even though most great sagas require a major villain in order to reveal the true hero, we have none of that here.

Instead, Caesar symbolises our irreverence of imperialism. The more Caesar shows his strength and intelligence, the more our heroes grow up by resisting him. That is surely the explanation for the fact that René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo have always ridiculed his troops and henchmen, but never the person of the Emperor himself, who continues to be an enemy you can be proud of.

Indeed, Caesar is the worthy adversary who enables our indomitable heroes to stay noble, no matter how low they sink in their battle tactics. That never stops him from hatching the wildest schemes to finally subjugate our favourite. In fact he believes that he already has, offering the “crazy Gauls’ village” as a gift to the drunken legionnaire Tremensdelirius in Asterix and Caesar's Gift!

But no matter how ingenious they are, his plans crumble one by one: economic weapons in Obelix and Co., the pernicious tactics of Tortuous Convolvulus in Asterix and the Roman Agent, the “civilized” housing designed by Squareonthehypothenus in The Mansions of the Gods, and so on.

Even worse, Asterix and Obelix continue to ridicule him by snatching his crown of laurels, or effortlessly completing the Twelve Tasks he has devised for them. It’s no wonder that he sometimes loses his temper and yells at anyone who has the misfortune of arousing his anger, as he violently did with Redbeard in Asterix in Belgium.