Latin quotations are woven deeply into the fabric of the Asterix series. They often come to us out of the mouth of Pegleg, the philosopher pirate. Yet many of these lines are more than throwaway jokes. They come from classical literature and carry a sharp historical message that still resonates today.

One such example appears on page 16 of Asterix and the Missing Scroll, where Pegleg quotes the line “Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.” Like many well-chosen Asterix quotations, it rewards a closer look.

The source

The sentence is taken from Satire 2 of the Roman poet Juvenal, written around the beginning of the second century AD. Literally translated, it means that censure grants pardon to the crows, but harasses the doves. Behind this compact image lies a bitter observation about justice and hypocrisy.

Juvenal uses the contrast between two birds to expose a double standard. The crows represent those who are powerful, shameless, or openly corrupt. Despite their obvious faults, they are forgiven or ignored by those who sit in judgement. The doves, by contrast, stand for the innocent or socially weak. Lacking influence or protection, they are subjected to relentless scrutiny and punished for the smallest offences.

The background

This theme runs through much of Juvenal’s work. Writing at the height of the Roman Empire, he lived in a society of immense wealth and rigid hierarchy, where public morality was loudly preached and selectively enforced. His satires attack self-proclaimed moral guardians who condemned others while being guilty of far worse behaviour themselves. The same author also gave us enduring phrases such as “Panem et circenses” and “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”, both of which express a deep scepticism toward power and authority.

The word censura in the quotation refers to moral judgement rather than a single official act. In Republican Rome, the censor was a magistrate with sweeping powers to oversee public morals and social rank. Under the Empire, that office had lost much of its former independence, but the idea of moral policing remained very much alive. Juvenal’s point is that such judgement was rarely applied equally. Those with connections were spared, while those without protection bore the full weight of condemnation.

Over the centuries, this line has remained a concise expression of unequal justice. Medieval legal writers cited it as a warning to judges. Early modern thinkers used it to argue against privilege before the law. Even today, its message survives in the familiar complaint that there is one rule for the powerful and another for everyone else.