Weird Stuff About March 15, The Ides of March
By Michelle Carr-Crowe, San Jose real estate agent specializing in Cupertino Schools homes for sale
Ask almost any high school student about “the Ides of March” and the only answer he or she will likely give is “it had something to do with the assassination of Julius Caesar.”
As in that famous line from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March.”
Although the phrase sounds ominous to people in the 21st century, as recently as the Renaissance, many Europeans still used the Julian calendar and its phrases. To them, the Ides of March translated simply into “the middle of March” or March 15.
Romans counted their months from three fixed points: the Nones (5th or 7th), the Ides (13th or 15th), and the Kalends (1st) of the following month. The Ides occurred near the midpoint, on the 13th for most months, but on the 15th for March, May, July, and October.
The Ides were determined by the full moon, reflecting the lunar origin of the Roman calendar. The Ides of March would usually occur on the first full moon of the new year. To honor Jupiter, a sacrifice was often made during this time.
Today Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of his fellow Roman senators. Led by Brutus and Cassius, as many as 60 conspirators participated in the assassination.
According to Plutarch, a seer warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The ides of March have come," as if calling the seer’s bluff as the prophecy had not been fulfilled.
The seer sagely replied, "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."
Four years later, on the anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BCE, after achieving a victory at the siege of Perugia, Octavian (Julius Caesar’s adopted heir, later known as Augustus Caesar) executed 300 senators and knights who had fought against him under Lucius Antonius, the brother of Mark Antony. These executions were one of a series of actions taken by Octavian to avenge Caesar’s death. Suetonius and historian Cassius Dio describe the slaughter as a religious sacrifice, as it occurred on the Ides of March at the new altar to the deified Julius.
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