Well, here it is the ides of March again. If you\u2019ve read this blog over the years, you know that I\u2019ve usually talked about the ides this time of the year. And you\u2019ll remember that the ides, along with kalends, and nones were \u201cmarkers\u201d on the calendar used express dates in relation to the lunar phase of the month. And you probably also remember that the ides of March wasn\u2019t anything but a date until Shakespeare made it famous in his play about Julius Caesar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can check some of the past blog entries if you\u2019re really interested in the details, but which day of the month is the \u201cides\u201d depends on a complicated formula of calculation that Caesar himself established when he instituted the Julian calendar. Ides of March (and May, July and October) is the fifteenth. That\u2019s not the ides of all months \u2014 the ides of January, for example, is the thirteenth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve never seen the play Julius Caesar performed, but I did have to read it while in school. The following is from Act 1 of the play:
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music cry \u201cCaesar!\u201d Speak, Caesar is turn\u2019d to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Caesar: What man is that?
Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This conversation takes place during Lupercalia, an ancient Roman religious holiday. Caesar, the Roman dictator, makes his appearance before the crowd (\u201cpress\u201d) in the streets. From out of the crowd, a soothsayer issues his famous warning.\u00a0
Now Caesar was a very superstitious man, and wasn\u2019t the sort to take a soothsayer lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, the importance of the ides of March for Caesar is that it is the day he will be assassinated \u2014 by a group of conspirators, including Brutus and Cassius. But despite numerous signs, omens, and warnings, like the soothsayers warning, his wife\u2019s dreams of this murder, etc., Caesar goes out on the ides and gets himself killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shakespeare based his play on the work Plutarch\u2019s Life of Julius Caesar. In that work, the soothsayer warned Caesar to \u201ctake heed of the of the ides of March.\u201d I guess that wasn\u2019t quite dramatic enough for Shakespeare\u2026 he changed it to \u201cBeware the ides of March.\u201d\u00a0
Luckily he did \u2014 can you imagine \u201ctake heed of the ides of March\u201d ever taking off??
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, here it is the ides of March again. If you\u2019ve read this blog over the years, you know that I\u2019ve usually talked about the ides this time of the year. And you\u2019ll remember that the ides, along with kalends, … Continue reading