While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred. To set it up: Caesar stands at the Rubicon, wondering whether he should cross it with his troops and start a civil war or not. Here’s a translation of that section of “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars”. Uderzo completely disregards this timeline in “ Asterix and the Actress.” In ContextĬaesar is said to have said “alea jacta est” as his troops crossed through the Rubicon River. And Egypt’s leader, Ptolemy, beheaded Pompey and presented it to Caesar. Yes, this is also the birth of the phrase, “Crossing the Rubicon,” which has a meaning very similar to “the die is cast.”īy the way, Caesar won that Civil War. Of importance to this article’s love of language, I should mention the name of the river Caesar crossed over to enter Italy from the North. (I think that’s another Shakespeare saying…) So Caesar went to Pompey’s home town and started a war. When politicians stand against you while you control an army that just killed a million people, why would you listen to politicians? They ordered him to step away from the military he had led in the war and return to Rome, where his term as governor had ended during his march across Europe. (In fact, he married the daughter of another political rival to Caesar.)
Pompey had defected and wasn’t coming back. A third pal in that relationship had recently died, as had Caesar’s daughter, who had married Pompey.Ĭaesar, being a fan of good customer service, then offered a niece to Pompey in exchange, but it was too late. For starters, his biggest political pal, Pompey, defected to the opposition in the Senate. So, we shall run with it.īut things had changed in Rome while Julius Caesar was marching across Europe and winning the Gallic Wars.
Of course, they’re all written nearly 100 years after the fact, so there might be some shades of truth to some of the facts, but it’s what we have. Some chapters of his Julius Caesar book are lost, sadly, but what remains gives us lots of juicy details. Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, a/k/a Suetonius, born in 69 A.D., wrote biographies of twelve different Caesars in his life. Depending on the time scale of “Asterix,” it’s possible that all instances of him saying the phrase are chronologically correct. “ Asterix the Legionary” is clearly set after that, perhaps as late as 46 BC. So the year 49 BC came a year after 50 BC, which is when “Asterix” supposedly takes place. Remember, these years are counting down to the year 1 B.C. Julius Caesar is quoted as saying “alea jacta est” in 49 BC. It plays fast and loose with things, and can occasionally be downright anachronistic. Yes, “Asterix” is not an historical novel.