These sequences come from early in the sixth album, Asterix and Cleopatra by René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo.
BACKSTORY: Caesar tells Cleopatra that he doesn't think much of 'modern' Egypt, claiming that all the great works were built during ancient Egypt's heyday, thousands of years before. Which was in fact true, as Cleopatra herself was part of a recent dynasty of Greek conquerors. Nevertheless, she's mortally offended on behalf of herself and her nation, and vows to build a great palace to Caesar in a mere three months' time(!)
Haha, I love the wittiness of that right panel above, which reminds me of classic Shaw Bros Kung Fu films. I mean the unintentional hilarity of choppy dubbing, that is.
Such a great premise for a classic adventure, no?
I always appreciated the transition from the queen's palace set in the baking sands of Egypt all the way to the rustic little village in wintertime. Somehow it satisfies the eyes and the soul, both. And for the sharp-eyed, the little dog that tagged along in the last adventure (Banquet) pops up again just above, altho isn't named just yet.
Hats-off to the momentum-building! Indeed, Goscinny & Uderzo are one of the great writer-artist teams in comics at the tip-top of their game, here. But let's also not forget translators Bell & Hockridge, who routinely did an astonishing job of preserving the cleverness of the original French, even when it was pretty much impossible to convey the nuance or cultural references.
EDIT: One last thing I want to add is that the leading panel is actually pretty small on the total page, and after a modest 160% upscale and 125% width-increase, still works beautifully as stand-alone art. A real tribute to Uderzo's attention to detail and composition skills, I think.
Btw, @[email protected] taught me somewhat about the neighboring Kush kingdom, which I believe conquered Egypt a few hundred years before Cleo's reign.
When looking up this album on social media, I came across a comment which suggested that by this point, Egypt had already been conquered for 500 years. IIRC it was first the Kush, then the... Babylonians? and finally Alexander's (and Ptolemy's) Greeks.
The other memorable comment is that the body of Egyptians were thrilled about the Greeks taking over, since the previous regime had attempted to suppress native culture & beliefs in favor of their own, a major logistical / cultural no-no, is it not? (I mean, just look at what happened to King Tut's father, haha)
More like 700 years. Egypt was conquered by Kush in 712 BCE. In 671 BCE the Assyrians came and took over. The Egyptians rebelled successfully and kicked them out in 653 though. The next conqueror who attacked Egypt was Persia in 525, the conquest was finished in 341. Persian rule lasted until Alexander the Great took Egypt without resistance in 331. After Alexanders death his generals divided the empire among each other, thereby forming the Diadochi kingdoms. Ptolemy got Egypt and founded the dynasty that ended with the famous Cleopatra in 30 BCE when she died and Egypt was incorporated as a roman province.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/egypt/
Ah, thanks for that correction and the site!
I used to love reading a timeline-style history book whenever I stayed over at my mom's, but never found a proper replacement, so this looks promising. ^^