ides of march

March 15, 2003 1:59 PM

Today is the Ides of March. What is the Ides of March? It is March 15th in the ancient Roman calender, the first day of the Roman New Year and the first day of spring. The Roman calender refered to days by names not numbers, thus each month has an Ide day, although not always on the 15th. The Ides of March is best known as the day Julius Caesar was assasinated in the Senate (44 BC) and made famous by the Shakespeare line "Beware the Ides of March". It modern times it has come to symbolize foreboding and bad luck. Iggy Pop sang about it prophetically with todays current events, and in Rome where it all started it's a good day to Toga Party.
posted by stbalbach (7 comments total)

Ides Of March, you say?
posted by jonmc at 2:28 PM on March 15, 2003

One of these days, the Nones and the Kalends are gonna hit back.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:41 PM on March 15, 2003

You totally beat me to that, jonmc...excellent!
posted by LinusMines at 2:51 PM on March 15, 2003

in Rome where it all started it's a good day to Toga Party.

If you want to have your pink bits turn pinker from the cold. :-P
posted by romakimmy at 3:09 PM on March 15, 2003

Even the BBC article makes that mistake, but it's calendar. Calender is the ancient root but now it has other meanings.
Every day can be a special day somewhere.
posted by 111 at 4:48 PM on March 15, 2003

Pish! It's my half-birthday today, that's all.

Carry on, then.
posted by Guy Smiley at 5:48 PM on March 15, 2003

It is my MetaFilter birthday.

Beware the Ides of March!!!!
posted by yhbc at 7:13 PM on March 15, 2003