page_title: Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield
section_title: Notes
hierarchical_section_title: Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield / Notes
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Établissement thermal de Royat
context_page_description: Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield is the eleventh volume in the Asterix comic book series, written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. It was originally published as a serial in Pilote issues 399–421 in 1967.
  The book is inspired by the battle of Alesia, where the Gaulish warrior chief Vercingetorix surrendered to Julius Caesar. However, only the very end of the actual battle appears in the book – the main plot concerns what happened after the battle.
  This episode, like Asterix and the Cauldron, is plotted like a detective novel, with a mystery to be solved at the very end.
context_section_description: A running gag in this book features Vitalstatistix and Winesanspirix falsely claiming "I don't know where Alesia is! No one knows where Alesia is!", as if ashamed at Vercingetorix's defeat. Historically, Alesia's likely location was rediscovered only after this book was published.
  The ubiquitous wine-and-coal shops in Gergovie allude to the Bougnats, Arvernian immigrants to Paris operating shops selling wine, wood, and coal.
  This book establishes the origin of Vitalstatistix's shield, on which he is customarily carried, as that of Vercingetorix.
  This is one among a minority of Asterix books wherein the bard Cacofonix is not tied up and gagged at – and actively participating in – the feast.
  This is the first album wherein Vitalstatistix's wife Impedimenta is named.
  The wheel factory is a reference to Michelin, based in Clermont-Ferrand, or the Gaullish Nemessos. In real life, the main square in Clermont-Ferrand has a statue of Vercingetorix, as opposed to the statue of Caesar in the book.
  In the wheel factory, Obelix shows a desire for business success: a theme later central to Obelix and Co.
  Though Vitalstatistix' hydrotherapy according to the comic book takes place in Aquae Calidae (modern Vichy), the first picture on page 10 alludes to the Source Eugénie and the thermal building in Royat where the Romans used the thermal springs for hydrotherapy as well.
  In the Asterix books, a map of Gaul bears the caption that 'by 50 B.C. all Gaul was occupied by the Romans'; but the historical battle of Alesia took place about the year 52 B.C. It is treated as having occurred at least 15 years before this story; thus placing Asterix in the mid-30s B.C. (though the historical Julius Caesar, a recurring character in these books, had been murdered long before).
  This book serves as a loose basis for the Sega Mega Drive video game Asterix and the Power of the Gods.
caption: The Source Eugénie in Royat, left in the background the thermal building from the 19. century.
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