IDES OF MARCH

In the Roman calendar, the 'Ides of March' was a term used to denote 15 March. In general, the Ides fell on the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, or October, or the 13th day of any other month.^[1] The term had real meaning only in the traditional Roman calendar, which was displaced by the Julian calendar in 46 BC; however, it was still used in a colloquial sense for centuries afterwards to denote the middle of the month.
In modern times, the term is best known because of Julius Caesar having been assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC, the story of which was famously retold in William Shakespeare's play ''Julius Caesar''.^[2] The term has come to be used as a metaphor for impending doom.

Contents

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Usage in modern popular culture

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March. A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "Well, the Ides of March are come," and the seer said to him softly: "Ay, they are come, but they are not gone."^[3]
As the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called themselves the ''Liberatores'' ("Liberators"); they justified their action on the grounds that they committed tyrannicide, not murder, and were preserving the Republic from Caesar's alleged monarchical ambitions.

Usage in modern popular culture

★ Thee Mighty Caesars, a garage/punk group fronted by Billy Childish, named an LP "Beware the Ides of March" released in 1985.

★ The Ides of March are celebrated every year by the Rome Hash House Harriers with a toga run in the streets of Rome, in the same place where Julius Caesar was killed.

★ British heavy metal band Iron Maiden opened their second album (Killers) with an instrumental entitled "The Ides of March."

★ In 1970, the American band The Ides of March had a number 2 hit on the Billboard charts with the song "Vehicle."

★ In 2005, the Canadian band Silverstein created a song called "Ides of March" on the album "Discovering the Waterfront".

★ A paperback reprint of material from MAD Magazine, from the late 1950s, is titled ''The Ides of MAD''; on the cover of the current edition is a bust of the magazine's mascot Alfred E. Neuman, with an inscription in Latin on the base, ''Quid, Me Vexari?'' ("What, me Worry?"). The bust and the wall behind it are pelted with eggs and tomatoes.

★ In Back to the Future II, George McFly was killed on the Ides of March in 1973

★ In the Weebl and Bob episode "history5", Bob tells Weebl to "beware the Pies of March." He explains that it is currently December, and that "they've gone off by now."

★ In The Simpsons episode "Homer the Great", Lisa warns Homer, "beware the Ides of March", after Homer claims he now knows he is god.

★ In episode "Ides of March", Xena and Gabrielle are crucified on the Ides of March, and Caesar himself is murdered. It is Xena who utters the famous warning, however, she directs it to Brutus rather than Caesar.

★ In Civilization IV, if the player is on poor terms with Julius Caesar and opens the diplomacy screen with him, Caesar will comically ask why the player is there and if it's "the Ides of March already".

★ In the film The House of Yes, Parker Posey's character goes by the name Jackie-O ever since she attended an Ides of March party dressed as the former first lady.

Trivia

★ Cao Cao, one of the greatest warlords of the Three Kingdoms Era of China, also died on the Ides of March in 220 AD and a year later the Kingdom of Shu Han was established by Liu Bei.

References

1. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ides
2. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II
3. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The Life of Julius Caesar

See also

★ Ides

★ Roman calendar

★ Julian calendar

External links

★ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II

★ ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Life of Julius Caesar

★ Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus (translated by Clayton M. Hall)

★ IDES of MARCH, A ROCK SHOW HELD in NEPAL

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