When fans of Asterix encounter characters like Getafix or Cacofonix, they are meeting comic-book versions of real intellectual roles attested in ancient writings. One of the most important sources for these roles is Strabo, a Greek scholar whose vast work, the Geographica, preserves information found nowhere else.
Although Strabo never visited Gaul himself, he recorded earlier descriptions from writers such as Posidonius, giving us some of the clearest surviving evidence for the threefold division of the Gaulish learned class: druids, vates and bards.
Who Was Strabo?
Strabo (c. 64 BCE – after 24 CE) was a geographer, historian and philosopher from Amasia in Asia Minor. Living through the transition from the Roman Republic to the Empire, he travelled through Greece, Egypt and parts of the Near East, but relied on earlier written accounts for regions he did not personally visit.
His significance comes from his encyclopedic seventeen-book Geographica, a work that attempted to describe the entire known world as comprehensively as possible.
The Geographica and Its Sources
Strabo’s work is valued because it:
• compiles earlier writings that are now lost
• preserves ethnographic notes from eye-witness explorers
• evaluates his sources with unusual skepticism for his era
• includes cultural, geographical and political information
For Iron Age Gaul, Strabo’s most important source was Posidonius, a Stoic philosopher who travelled among Celtic peoples in the 2nd–1st century BCE. Much of what Strabo reports about druids, bards and vates appears to come directly from Posidonius’ lost writings.
Strabo’s Tripartite Division of the Gaulish Intellectual Class
In Geographica (Book IV), Strabo describes a three-class intellectual system:
• Bards – poets and singers who preserved oral history
• Vates – ritual specialists and natural philosophers
• Druids – moral philosophers and religious authorities
This classification is echoed almost verbatim by Diodorus Siculus and indirectly supported by Julius Caesar. It is the foundation for how modern historians and creators, including Goscinny and Uderzo, imagine the internal structure of Gaulish religious and scholarly life.
Strabo and the Druids
Strabo describes the druids as the highest intellectual order, concerned with moral philosophy, natural philosophy, and the oversight of religious doctrine. Their social role — judges, teachers, arbiters — parallels the respected calm authority of Getafix (Panoramix) in Asterix.
While the details of ritual practice in the comics are comedic inventions, the idea of the druid as the village’s wisest figure reflects the ancient literary tradition that Strabo helped preserve.
Strabo and the Vates
The vates were responsible for ritual, sacrifice and interpreting natural phenomena. They combined religious duties with practical knowledge of nature. This class provides the historical background for characters such as Prolix in Asterix and the Soothsayer.
While Strabo’s vates were not necessarily charlatans, Strabo’s reports helped shape later interpretations of Celtic divination — a theme that the comics famously satirise.
Strabo and the Bards
Strabo describes bards as poets and musicians with important political and historical roles. Their praise or satire could help maintain the reputation of leaders. This respected social position is humorously inverted in Cacofonix (Assurancetourix), whose musical “talents” are feared for entirely different reasons.
Nevertheless, the placement of Cacofonix within the village elite reflects the historical status Strabo attributes to the bards.
How Reliable Is Strabo?
Modern scholarship views Strabo as:
• valuable, for preserving earlier material
• indirect, since he rarely saw what he described
• cautious, often questioning exaggerated claims
• selective, writing for a Greek-educated literary audience
For Gaulish religion, he is not an eyewitness, but he is a crucial transmitter of information from authors who were. Without Strabo, the evidence for the tripartite system would be far poorer.
Why Strabo Matters for Asterix
Strabo’s account shaped later historical and literary ideas about Celtic society. Goscinny and Uderzo drew on this scholarly tradition — directly or indirectly — when constructing the social roles within the famous indomitable village:
• Getafix embodies the druid-philosopher
• Prolix echoes the seer or diviner
• Cacofonix transforms the bard into pure satire
Understanding Strabo helps readers appreciate how well the Asterix universe blends humor with carefully researched historical structure.
