reading classics

I've been reading some classics in Latin the last two weeks, even if it's only classic comics ...

I recently spotted two Asterix albums in the excellent Latin translation of Rubricastellanus (1934-2019) at a charity shop, and took that as a sign to reread the others I have, including one I quickly ordered, now adding up to seven albums (no point in using the numbers as the numbering of the Latin editions is all over the place):

• Falx aurea - I had since my school years, can't remember how I got it.
• Cleopatra -
• Laurea Caesaris - we bought these two for Latin-learning children.
• Papyrus Caesaris - I bought this one when it came out because I loved the original so much and given the topic (the history of Caesar's famous book De bello gallico) I felt I needed the Latin version.
• Gladiator
• Clipeus Arvernus - these two I discovered last month.
• Gallus - this I ordered this month, the only one I found online at a reasonable price.

Well, after reading all seven in a couple of months, I feel I know the translator's style well enough to read anything by him (18 volumes to go, and I also have a comic adaptation of Bellum helveticum for which he prepared the text). It's not Cicero, obviously, so much easier than the proper classics, as he aims for a colloquial tone realistically reflecting how people might have spoken in the street. Classical rhetoric only occurs in quotes from the classics and occasionally to make fun of speakers. Each album comes with a vocabulary prepared by the translator - in some I have each word is translated into five languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian), in others it's only German.

Given the obvious issues with the early albums (absence of women, racist stereotypes), I would tend to recommend Papyrus Caesaris for the modern reader (and classics student):

available eg from Abe Books

PS searching for individual titles rather than for the name Rubricastellanus I now ordered a copy of

• Apud Britannos

Completing the translations of the classical series until the death of Goscinny seems like an achievable goal. Only 17 of the 24 have been published in Latin.

PPS: I can partially blame it on all those clergymen and Latin teachers who popped up in my family history, including several called Caesar ...

Update 29.7.2026: Added to the collection:

• Iter gallicum (Tour de France)

writing history

Asterix: Le papyrus de César

The 36th Asterix album – the second from the new team, Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad – addresses a question of utmost importance for the historical consistency of the whole oeuvre: Why on earth did Caesar not mention the indomitable Gauls and their numerous victories against his legions in his famous De Bello Gallico? Did he falsify the historical record by omission? Are all the zillions of schoolchildren who start their Latin reading with “Gallia est omnis divisa …” fed a pack of lies?

The issue is addressed with a very satisfying story, resulting in an album worthy to be read alongside the Golden Era ones written in the years before Goscinny died. On the basis of this story, there are deep discussions to be had about how history is written, the contribution of reportage, the value of oral tradition, and the philosophy of truth. Oh, and the vanity of writers and the publishing industry. And Assurancetourix the bard (Cacofonix / Troubadix) plays an early example of a Stroh cello, so what’s not to love?

Intriguingly, this arrived on my doorstep just after I started reading another recently published book featuring the origins of Caesar’s famous opus. In the third volume of his fictionalised biography of Cicero, Robert Harris imagines Cicero’s secretary Tiro visiting Caesar in Gaul and reading the beginning of his 12th chapter: “Flumen est Arar quod per fines Haeduorum et Sequanorum in Rhodanum influit, incredibili lenitate ita ut oculis in utram partem fluat iudicari non possit.” Seeing that Tiro is believed to have written a biography of Cicero which is lost, while Caesar’s book is so ubiquitous that it would survive the apocalypse, this encounter between two authors is also an interesting reflection on the vagaries of history writing.

looks like a fragment of the lost scroll survived in the font of the word "papyrus" - maybe the authors should reveal that in full ...

PS: here's an interview with the creators, from the Guardian.

51 years of Asterix & Obelix

Brussels is not only the capital of the European Union, but also the capital of the European comic strip, as I found out last week when trying to find a book shop that also sells normal books without drawings. So I felt obliged to bring back a copy of the Asterix & Obelix "Livre d'or" (Golden Book) published on the occasion of their 50th anniversary last year (which I missed completely, living on an island that's very well insulated from European culture).

Although I started my writing career with a lengthy piece about Asterix volumes 1-24 in my school magazine 30 years ago, I'm not going to review this one in detail. It's great fun, but it also struck me that dear old Uderzo is about as subtle as Obelix (which, I believe, is not a coincidence). All the graphic jokes which might have served a deeper meaning if Goscinny were alive, are just thrown around for the heck of it. But what can we do. It's the best we can get without René so we might as well enjoy, as my 12-year-old clearly does.