March 15 is known as the ides of March. But why do we need to “beware” of them? What’s so inauspicious about this otherwise normal day? Why has this humdrum mid-month point become a harbinger of ill fortune?
Where did the phrase ides of March come from?
First, let’s talk calendars—specifically, the ancient Roman calendar.
Unlike today, the ancient Romans didn’t simply number their calendar days in order from the first of the month to the last. Instead, they counted backward in relation to three days: the calends, nones, and ides.
- The calends (or kalends; from the Latin word kalendae) was the first of the month. Calends, source of the word calendar, was the time for settling debts.
- The nones (from the Latin word nōnae) was the ninth day before the ides. This day was equivalent to the seventh day of March, May, July, and October, and the fifth day of the other months. Originally, the nones corresponded to the first quarter of the moon. Early Romans used a lunar calendar, so they relied on the phases of the moon to determine the beginning of a new month or a new year.
- The ides (from the Latin word īdūs) was the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months. The ides originally corresponded to the full moon, storied for its own omens. At the time, March 15 was also associated with various religious observances and celebrations.
So, the Roman day of the month was reckoned by counting the days (including the starting and ending days) before the calends, nones, and ides. March 2 was the Latin equivalent of “six days before the nones of March.” March 13 was the equivalent of “three days before the ides of March.” March 27 was the equivalent of “six days before the calends of April.”
Do you know how the month of March got its name? Learn all about the origin here.
How did the ides of March become superstitious?
The Roman general and statesmen Julius Caesar became a dictator after causing a civil war. On March 15 in 44 BCE, Caesar was assassinated by conspiring members of the Roman senate, notably including Marcus Brutus. His rule, and murder, effectively ended the Roman republic—and changed the course of history. Caesar’s assassination would eventually lead to the founding of the Roman Empire by Caesar’s nephew Octavian, better known as Emperor Caesar Augustus.
William Shakespeare dramatized Caesar’s assassination and its aftermath in the eponymous tragedy Julius Caesar (dated to around 1599). Early in the play, a soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the ides of March.” Later, on the fateful day, Caesar is stabbed (famously 23 times). Shakespeare has the dying dictator say, in Latin, as he recognizes his one-time friend Brutus among the assassins: “Et tu, Brute?” (“You, too, Brutus?”).
Caesar probably never said these words. Nor was Shakespeare the first to make them up—though he certainly helped immortalize them, and the ides of March, in culture.
