Ides of March

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Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de César, 1798.

The ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October.^[1] The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. In William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Caesar is warned to "beware the Ides of March."^[2]

Etymology

The term idūs (ides) originally referred to the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspicious day in their calendar. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month) but is probably of non-Indo-European origin.^[3]

Usage in modern popular culture

In print, film, television and theatre

• A paperback reprint of material from MAD Magazine, from the late 1950s, is titled The Ides of MAD.
• A 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch titled "Julius Caesar On an Aldis Lamp" had the seer sending the message "Beware the Ides of March" to Caesar using Morse code.
• An episode in the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess is titled "Ides of March", wherein Caesar is murdered.
• A social commentary play, written by Duncan Ley, was titled "The Ides of March" and premiered at The White Bear Theatre in London, UK, on 28 November 2008.
• Thornton Wilder's 1948 The Ides of March is an epistolary novel set in Rome at the time of Julius Caesar.
• In the Simpsons episode Homer the Great, Lisa warns Homer to "beware the Ides of March."
• It was on March 15, the "ides of March" (though the term as such was never mentioned) in 1973 that George McFly, Marty's father, was shot down by Biff Tannen in the alternate (Biffhorrific) timeline in Back to the Future, Part II.
• In season 1, episode 2 of the television series FlashForward, Demetri Noh is informed that he will be murdered on March 15, 2010.

Observances

• 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.
• The Atlanta Chapter of the Dagorhir Battle Games Association hosts an annual spring event at Red Horse Stables on the weekend closest to the 15th of March. The event is appropriately named "The Ides of March".
• The band Iron Maiden has an instrumental song called "The Ides Of March" featured on their second album Killers
• The Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein has a song called "The Ides Of March" from their second full-length album Discovering The Waterfront.

References

Silverstein features a song entitled The Ides of March on their 2005 CD, Discovering The Waterfront

External links

• William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II
• Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Life of Julius Caesar
• Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus (translated by Clayton M. Hall)