You may be hearing the term “Beware the ides of March” on Friday, yet have no idea why you should be aware nor what the ides of March is.
March 15 has been a lucky day for some and a particularly unlucky day for one and it’s from that unlucky event we get the warning.
Here’s what the ides are about.
What does ides mean?
The word ides is a Latin word that refers to the first full moon of a given month.
The Romans kept track of days on their calendar by dividing each month into three separate points marking the beginning, middle and end of the month. You may have guessed it – the Ides fall in the middle of the month.
The ides were sacred and marked a day that a monthly sacrifice to the Roman god Jupiter was given. Various other religious observances also took place on the ides of March.
Who should be aware of the ides?
In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar should have been aware, because on that day he was stabbed to death.
Caesar was launching a series of political and social reforms that did not sit well with others in the Roman Senate. According to historians, 60 senators planned and participated in the conspiracy to kill Caesar at the Curia of Pompey on March 15.
Caesar’s assassination sparked civil wars that eventually brought the Roman Republic to an end.
‘Beware the Ides of March’ made famous by Shakespeare
The term “Beware the ides of March” comes from William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar.”
In the play, a soothsayer warns Caesar to be careful on March 15.
It was said that not only did a fortune teller warn Caesar, but that he was also warned by his wife, Calpurnia, who was said to have had a dream the night before his assassination where she saw Caesar covered in blood, and by other senators who either knew of or suspected there was a plot to kill him.
According to the Greek historian Plutarch, the soothsayer warned Caesar that he would be – at the very least – injured by the ides of March.
On the day of his death, Plutarch said that Caesar saw the oracle and joked with him that he had made it to the Ides of March, to which the seer responded, “The day had not yet ended.”
In the play – and in real life – Caesar ignored the warnings and, instead, went to the Curia of Pompey where he was stabbed to death.
What else happened on this date?
Today isn’t just the anniversary of Caesar’s death. Here are a few other famous events that have happened today in history:
1767: Our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, was born on this day somewhere between North and South Carolina. The exact spot is disputed.
1917: Czar Nicholas II was forced by the Russian people to abdicate the throne after ruling the country for more than 20 years. The February Revolution – so named because Russia used the Julian calendar at the time – broke out just four days before the czar abdicated his throne.
1933: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in New York City.
1965: President Lyndon Johnson delivered his “We Shall Overcome” speech which introduced voting rights legislation. The Voting Rights Act was passed later that year.
1972: Fifty-two years ago, Francis Ford Coppola’s three-hour crime epic “The Godfather” first played in theaters. It went on to win three Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture.
1977: The situation comedy “Three’s Company,” starring John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers, premiered on ABC-TV.
2018: A pedestrian bridge that was under construction collapsed onto a busy Miami highway, crushing vehicles beneath massive slabs of concrete and steel. Six people were killed.
2019: A gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, streaming the massacre live on Facebook. Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole after he pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and other charges.
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