Staring at the basilica from the main square is a muscular, mustachioed statue. This is local hero Ambiorix, a tribal chieftain who led a brief 54 BC revolt against Julius Caesar’s Roman rule. Loosely represented by Beefix in the classic Asterix comics, Ambiorix had been largely forgotten by historians until the 1830s, when newly founded Belgium was in need of national heroes.
To learn more about Ambiorix, don't miss the film in the Gallo-Roman Museum, which dramatises a version of his daring if ungentlemanly battle tactics.
