The next day, during the chariot races, Asterix and Obelix substitute themselves for an inebriated contestant, and win the race.

On the eve before the games, Asterix and Obelix visit Cacofonix in his cell and inform him of their intentions to free him and the gladiators. Later, when Fatuous plans the Games to Julius Caesar, the Gauls go on a stroll, with Caius Fatuous (reluctantly) as their guide. Soon, the Gauls demoralize Insalubrius and irritate Caius Fatuous by having the other gladiators play guessing-games instead of training. Caius Fatuous has his men try to ambush them in groups of three, but Asterix and Obelix defeat them with ease, and apparently without taking notice.Ĭaius Fatuous then offers a reward of 10,000 sestertii to any citizen who captures Asterix and Obelix but the two of them volunteer as gladiators to infiltrate the following Games, and Fatuous places them in training under his assistant Insalubrius. The next morning, the Gauls' first attempt at rescuing the bard fails when they raid the Circus prison and discover that Cacofonix has been transferred to a lower basement. That night, Asterix and Obelix visit Instantmix in his insula, where he identifies the location of Cacofonix. There, Caius Fatuous decides they would be perfect candidates for the gladiators' fights in the Circus Maximus, and he arranges to have them captured. Upon arrival in Rome, Asterix and Obelix befriend Instantmix (a Gaulish chef working in Rome) and visit the public baths. In Rome, after Cacofonix has subjected the slaves in the prefect's galley to his bad singing, the prefect presents him to Julius Caesar but when Caius Fatuous, the gladiators' trainer, declares Cacofonix unfit to serve as a gladiator, Caesar decides to throw the bard to the lions.

A young boy named Picanmixįrom the village raises the alarm to Asterix and Obelix, and the Gauls attack Compendium but learn that the prefect has already left in his galley with Cacofonix.Īsterix and Obelix therefore board a ship with Ekonomikrisis the Phoenician merchant, who agrees to take them to Rome after they save him from the pirates. Soldiers sent by the centurion, although driven away by Cacofonix's singing at first, counteract this by stuffing parsley in their ears and capture him easily. Because none of the others can be captured, Centurion Gracchus Armisurplus decides on Cacofonix the bard.

While stopping at the Roman Camp of Compendium, Prefect Odius Asparagus wants one of the indomitable Gauls as a present for Julius Caesar. It was first serialized in the magazine Pilote, issues 126–168, in 1962. Asterix the Gladiator is the fourth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations).

Asterix the Gladiator by René Goscinny