Ides Of March, myth, reality, my imagination gone wild?

So every year I glance at the calendar on the 15th of March and I get a shiver down my spine. Is there really something to the warning of Julius Caesar about the Ides of March that still lingers today or am I just letting my paranoia get to me?

I guess if I had more information on what the Ides of March really represents that would be handy. I do realize that it falls particularily close to the spring equinox, and often times a full moon. Does that have anything to do with it you think?

Anyway just thought I'd toss it out there...and if you have a friend named Brutus you might want to pay extra special attention to him today.

Found something to explain it...

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The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fanciful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiences attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

The term Ides comes from the earliest Roman calendar, which is said to have been devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. Whether it was Romulus or not, the inventor of this calendar had a penchant for complexity. The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

Kalends (1st day of the month)
Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)

The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones—5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).

Days in March
March 1: Kalends; March 2: VI Nones; March 3: V Nones; March 4: IV Nones; March 5: III Nones; March 6: Pridie Nones (Latin for "on the day before"); March 7: Nones; March 15: Ides

Used in the first Roman calendar as well as in the Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.E.) the confusing system of Kalends, Nones, and Ides continued to be used to varying degrees throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calendar is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundane meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on which bills are due.

Great research SDF!!!

Thanks for the info on this - the Ides of March. Every year I think about this it is a little creepy!

hey .... the ides of march just didnt work out real well for Julius Caesar....
no worries mon.....

by the way did you know that "etu brutae" is latin for "you to brutus baby"!?

Glad to be of help... I'm an archiver at heart, anyway...

>smiles faintly<

I was only ever curious about it, myself... donnae' know why I waited till now to do a search...

I chalk it up to my swiss memory...