The Ides of March
"Beware the Ides of March!"
Shakespeare's famous line, from his play Julius Caesar, is uttered as a warning foreshadowing the assassination of the influential Roman general and statesman.
But what exactly are the Ides?
This is the rabbit hole I fell down through this morning.
It turns out that the Ides were part of the old calendrical system that was primarily lunar based and supposedly created by the founder of Rome, Romulus.
The early Roman calendar has ten months and then a space of time for winter before starting the new year in spring.
The non-winter months were divided into four parts: the Kalends was the first day of a month that coincided with the New Moon.
The seventh day was known as Nones, and marked the First-Quarter Moon. The days preceding it were known as "before the Nones".
Idus is the Latin word for "Ides." It generally fell on the 13th day of most months, but on the 15th for March, May, July, and October. The term appears to originate from an Etruscan word meaning “to divide.”
“In the earliest Roman calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the new year. As a fixed point in the month, the Ides accumulated functions set to occur every month, and was the day when debt payments and rents were due.” (Wikipedia)
Interestingly, it was Julius Caesar who moved the official start of the year from March to January, just two years before his assasination. The name, March, comes from the Roman name for the month 'Martius'--a tribute to the god of war, Mars, and his sons, Romulus and Remus, who became the ancestors of the Roman people,
The Ides of March by Edward Poynter - depiction of Caeser and Calpurnia seeing a comet
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-ides-of-march-205859, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83891906
Julius Caesar was born in 100 BCE and was responsible for transforming Rome from a republic city to the centre of an imperial empire—and became a dictator in the process.
On 15th March 44 BCE, Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate, marking a turning point in Roman history. Caeser had been repeatedly warned of impending doom before the event. According to Plutarch, a haruspex (a religious official who practiced divination by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals) read the signs of divine will and foretold this disruption in the natural world.
Caeser’s wife, Calpurnia, was said to have had many bad dreams and tried to warn her husband to be cautious in his meetings, but he apparently was dismissive of this. And finally, Caeser was purportedly given a note detailing a conspiracy to take him down, but he failed to read the note, passing it to an attendant, confident that those he had appointed could never betray him.
In the end, one of the plotters approached Caeser in the Senate chamber and grabbed his toga, signalling the beginning of the attack. The other plotters then rushed upon Caeser and—perhaps in an attempt to leave their mark on history—stabbed the dictator 35 times.
Could having moved the start of the new year from the time of Mars to the time of Janus be part of the ill-fortune Caesar was warned about shortly before his murder?
On a side note, I learned today that April is connected to Aphrodite, and May is connected to Maia--a major Greek goddess who was one of the Pleiades and mother of Hermes!
Finally, the goddess Juno was the inspiration for the month of June. She was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess, Hera, but in Rome was seen as the protector and special counsellor of the state.
And speaking of the state, if you are someone who enjoys films from the genre of political drama, then I highly recommend watching "The Ides of March" with Ryan Gosling. It's well-written and acted, and certainly reflects a lot of the naivete that arises out of almost any political process.
Wishing you all the blessings of Helios & Apollo on this sunny (and WINDY) day in the UK!