Humerus

Humerus (French: Humérus) is a Roman legionary who appears in the animated films Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods (2014) and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018). He serves under centurion Somniferus and sometimes argues with him. He appears to be best friends with a fellow legionary Tofungus.

## Appearance

Humerus is fat, with a big rounded nose. He has brown hair and thick eyebrows.

## Animated Films

### Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods

Humerus first appears in the background having a chat with Tofungus, in the scene where the archictect Squareonthehypothenus is ranting about the indomitable Gauls.

When the slaves uproot the first tree, Humerus and another legionary are hiding on top of it. When they say “Gauls” out loud, all the legionaries and slaves run away, leaving Somniferus and the architect behind.

A few days pass where the slaves uproot trees and the Gauls plant new ones using Getafix’s magic acorns. Somniferus pokes fun at the “construction site”, which makes Humerus and Tofungus chuckle as they’re carrying the exhausted architect. But when the centurion tells the architect to quit the project, he insists to keep going even if the slaves have to die. Asterix and Obelix, who have been eavesdropping, return to the village, share the news with Vitalstatistix and Getafix, and decide to free the slaves.

Humerus is playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with another legionary by the camp’s entrance when Obelix pushes one of the doors onto them. They continue playing in mid-air while the Gauls fight all the Romans in the camp.

While the potion-fueled Cacofonix is screaming, causing the Mansions’ habitants to run out, Somniferus and some legionaries are inside, including Humerus and Tofungus. The centurion orders the legionaries to shut the bard up, but they’re closing their ears and can’t hear him.

When most of the villagers move in to the Mansions of the Gods, Somniferus prepares to attack the village, but the army disobeys him. Tofungus and Humerus announce that the legion is on a strike, and another legionary says that attacking the village is too dangerous. When the Romans surround Getafix, Dogmatix and Mischiefus, Humerus reminds that the talk about politeness isn’t over. The centurion yells at the two legionaries to capture them, and Humerus carries Dogmatix by the ears.

The following night Somniferus argues with a few legionaries, including Humerus, about moving them with their families in to the Mansions of the Gods. Humerus says that he left his pregnant wife and that he is now a grandfather. The legionaries bring up Obelix, and Humerus calls the centurion a coward. The Romans then get caught off-guard by Obelix, who approaches them and passes out from starvation. Somniferus pokes the unconscious Gaul with a gladius, and Humerus tells him he’s brave.

The Romans lock Obelix up in chains. Humerus teams up with another legionary to bring him into the dungeon in the Mansions.

On the next day the legion approaches the Gaulish village, but stops when Asterix appears in front of them and pretends to drink the magic potion from his gourd. Humerus and Tofungus argue with Somniferus about the gourd’s contents.

Sometime later Humerus, Tofungus and one more legionary whisper between themselves, as the legion can’t decide whether to run from the Gauls or attack them. After a vote started by Tofungus the Romans run and hide in the Mansions, but then realize the Gauls don’t have any potion and give chase. When Vitalstatistix climbs the centurion’s tower, Humerus can be seen below.

Squareonthehypothenus prepared a feast for Caesar’s arrival, but when the emperor comes to the scene, he orders the Romans to remove all the food. Humerus is seen moving away one of the tables, then he’s about to eat a piece of cake, but another legionary takes it and throws it away.

While the Gauls and Romans are fighting, Humerus appears in a mansion window, where Obelix grabs him and throws him out. At some point he runs inside again and gets picked up by Tofungus who’s trying to run away from Asterix and Obelix. Then he hides in a sauna, where he gets kicked by Geriatrix.

### Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion

Humerus and Tofungus are much less prominent in this film, and Humerus appears to have doubles in some scenes. Humerus first appears only by the middle of the film. During the Romans' first attack on the Gaulish village, the village women deflect the rocks they catapulted, and one of them seems to land on Humerus. After the fight he falsely assumes all the potion got used up.

When the Gaulish women run out of potion, Tofungus and Humerus cheer with the centurion.

Demonix the druid drinks the potion that gives him the power to shoot fireballs from his hands, and attacks the village. Tofungus and Humerus comment that as long as the fireballs don’t hit them, their origin doesn’t matter, and they can even help. However the crazed druid starts shooting at the Romans, they break into the village and escape to the shore, where they idle as they don’t know what to do next.

Demonix drinks another potion which makes him grow to a giant size and turns his skin hard and burning hot. The villagers start drinking the magic potion brewed by Pectine and running to attack Demonix. The Romans stand back and watch, but the druids make them drink the potion and send them to fight as well. Humerus is the first to taste it, and he attacks the giant druid with a rolling pin.

## Videogame

In Asterix & Obelix XXL 3: The Crystal Menhir the shielded legionaries seem to be modeled after Humerus, although their bodies are a bit thinner.

Shielded legionary mob in Asterix & Obelix XXL 3Concept art for the shielded legionary in Asterix & Obelix XXL 3
## Trivia

* Humerus is named after a bone in the human body (between the shoulder and the elbow).
* In Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, the scene where Asterix is getting on the catapult has an animation error: Humerus’ eyebrows are missing.

Humerus with his eyebrows missingHumerus and Tofungus in a mosaic picture shown before credits in Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods