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On the Shelf

By Paul Guffin

3 min read

Ides

Tomorrow, March 15, is the infamous Ides of March. Those of us of a somewhat classical bent know it from Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar.” In Act 1, Scene 2, we find this exchange:

Soothsayer: Caesar!

Caesar: Ha! who calls?

Casca: Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,

Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Caesar: What man is that?

Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware

the ides of March.

Then, again in Act 3, Scene 1:

Caesar: The ides of March are come.

Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar, but not gone.

It is later in that same scene that Caesar is assassinated in the Roman Senate — on the ides of March.

So, just what is this “ides” thing? Well, first of all, it isn’t restricted just to March — although that’s the famous one, due to the assassination of Julius Caesar on that date in 44 BCE. Secondly, ides is a Roman thing. The Romans didn’t number each day of a month from the first day to the last, as we do today. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points in a month:

  1. the Nones — the 5th or 7th day, 8 days before the Ides;
  2. the Ides — the 13th of most months, but the 15th in March, May, July, and October; and,
  3. the Kalends — the 1st of the following month.

As Encyclopedia Britannica explains: “In a 31-day month such as March, the Kalends was day 1, with days 2-6 being counted simply as ‘before the Nones.’ The Nones fell on day 7, with days 8-14 ‘before the Ides’ and the 15th as the Ides. Afterwards, the days were counted as ‘before the Kalends’ of the next month.”

Originally, the Ides were supposed to be determined by the full moon, reflecting the lunar origin of the Roman calendar. The term Ides derives from the Latin word iduare, meaning “to divide”, with the full moon serving as the division point in the middle of each month. In the earliest calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the new year. The Ides of each month were sacred to Jupiter, the Romans’ supreme deity, whereas the Kalends were sacred to Juno, sister and wife of Jupiter. The day before each was known as its eve; the day after was considered particularly unlucky.

The day was especially unlucky for Julius Caesar, who was in the midst of a series of political and social reforms when he was assassinated by a group of nobles. Led by senators Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, a group of approximately 60 conspirators fatally stabbed Caesar in the Roman Senate in a plot to preserve the Roman Republic and halt Caesar’s increasingly monarchical regime. In Shakespeare’s play, as Brutus delivers the final blow, Caesar replies with his famous line, “Et tu, Brute?” translated as “You too, Brutus?”

So, what do we take away from this? For one, it pays to listen to soothsayers. Second, it doesn’t pay to be a despot. Third, beware of senators carrying swords. Fourth — okay, I don’t have a fourth. How about you?

We have William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” play here in the Downieville Library (along with all his other plays). It’s well worth the read.