Blog: Alae Jacta Est

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Readers of the Recording Diary on the album will doubtless be aware how VERY much I like Asterix, and so can imagine my GLEE when I discovered that BBC2 (aah...) are showing four Asterix films during the daytime this week. Last night I settled down to watch the first of them, and though it was LOVELY to watch it again (I think I've seen at least some of them before - I certainly remember the rather scarily WRONG voices) it was a bit rubbish. This was largely because it was redubbed in a weird way, without much reference to what the characters were saying, so lots of people were off screen when they were saying things, and also because it was a different (American!) translation from the ACE and HILARIOUS ones you get in the books. THUS the Romans had boring Proper Roman names, and the jokes were all pretty basic.

HOWEVER, for some reason, just before I gave up watching, the subtitle "Alae Jacta Est" popped up, and a Centurion on screen said "Aah, 'The Die Is Cast' - that's your genuine latin". GOODNESS knows why this happened, but i was glad it did, for it cleared up a mystery that has plagued me for about 25 years. In loads of the books a glum centurion says Alea Jacta Est, and I've always remembered it, and wondered what it really meant. And now I know!

GIRD yourselves, dear reader, for at some point very soon i am BOUND to find a way to SHOE HORN this in somewhere...

posted 20/8/2003 by MJ Hibbett

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