View source for Ides of March

{{Short description|Midpoint day in the Roman month of March}} {{Other uses}}
[[File:Vincenzo_Camuccini_-_La_morte_di_Cesare.jpg|thumb|''[[The Death of Julius Caesar (Camuccini)|The Death of Julius Caesar]]'' (1806) by [[Vincenzo Camuccini]]]]
{{Julius Caesar series}} The '''Ides of March''' ({{IPAc-en|aɪ|d|z}}; {{langx|la|Idus Martiae}}, [[Medieval Latin]]: {{lang|la-x-medieval|Idus Martii}})<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anscombe|first1=Alfred|title=The Anglo-Saxon Computation of Historic Time in the Ninth Century|date=1908|url=http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1908_BNJ_5_17.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1908_BNJ_5_17.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|publisher=[[British Numismatic Society]]|page=396}}</ref> is the day on the [[Roman calendar]] marked as the {{lang|la|[[ides (calendar)|Idus]]}}, roughly the midpoint of a month, of [[Martius (month)|Martius]], corresponding to [[15 March]] on the [[Gregorian calendar]]. It was marked by several major [[Religion in ancient Rome|religious observances]]. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the [[assassination of Julius Caesar]], which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

== Ides ==
The Romans did not number each day of a month from the first to the last day. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the [[Nones (calendar)|Nones]] (the 5th or 7th, eight days before the Ides), the [[Ides (calendar)|Ides]] (the 13th for most months, but the 15th in March, May, July, and October), and the [[Kalends]] (1st of the following month).

Originally the Ides were supposed to be determined by the [[full moon]], reflecting the [[Lunar calendar|lunar origin]] of the Roman calendar. ''Martius'' (March) was the first month of the Roman year until as late as the mid-second century BC, an order reflected in the numerical names of the months of September (the seventh month) through December (the tenth month) not corresponding to their current position on the Gregorian calendar. In the earliest Roman calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the new year.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[H.H. Scullard|Scullard, H.H.]]|title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic|url=https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul|url-access=limited|publisher=Cornell University Press|date=1981|pages=[https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul/page/n41 42]–43|isbn=9780801414022}}</ref> 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.<ref>Sarit Kattan Gribetz, "A Matter of Time: Writing Jewish Memory into Roman History," ''AJS Review'' 40:1 (2016), p. 58, n. 4.</ref><ref>Agnes Kirsopp Michels, ''The Calendar of the Roman Republic'' (Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 78.</ref>

=== Religious observances ===
[[File:Sousse_mosaic_calendar_March.JPG|thumb|Panel thought to depict the Mamuralia, from a [[Roman mosaic|mosaic]] of the months in which March is positioned at the beginning of the year (first half of the third century AD, from [[El Djem]], [[Tunisia]], in [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Africa]])]]
The month of Martius was named for the [[Mars (deity)|god Mars]], whose "[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies natalis|birthday]]" was celebrated on the first, but the Ides of each month were sacred to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], the Romans' supreme deity. The [[Flamen Dialis]], Jupiter's high priest, led the "Ides sheep" ({{lang|la|ovis Idulis}}) in procession along the [[Via Sacra]] to the {{lang|la|[[Arx (Roman)|arx]]}}, where it was [[Animal sacrifice|sacrificed]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Scullard, H.H.|title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic|page=43}}</ref>

March retained many of its new-year ceremonies even when it was preceded on the calendar by January and February. In addition to the monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also the occasion of the Feast of [[Anna Perenna]], a goddess of the year (Latin {{lang|la|annus}}) whose festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year. The day was enthusiastically celebrated among the common people with picnics, drinking, and revelry.<ref>{{cite book|author=Scullard, H.H.|title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic|page=90}}</ref> One source from [[late antiquity]] also places the [[Mamuralia]] on the Ides of March.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[John Lydus|Lydus, John]] (6th century)|title=De mensibus 4.36}} Other sources place it on 14 March.</ref> This observance, which has aspects of [[scapegoat]] or ancient Greek ''[[pharmakos|{{transliteration|grc|pharmakos}}]]'' ritual, involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and perhaps driving him from the city. The ritual may have been a new-year festival representing the expulsion of the [[Father Time|old year]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Salzman, Michele Renee|title=On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity|url=https://archive.org/details/onromantimecodex00salz|url-access=limited|publisher=University of California Press|date=1990|pages=[https://archive.org/details/onromantimecodex00salz/page/n243 124]& 128–129|isbn=9780520065666}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=[[William Warde Fowler|Fowler, William Warde]]|title=The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic|url=https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsp02fowlgoog|location=London|date=1908|pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsp02fowlgoog/page/n60 44]–50|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref>

In the later [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]], the Ides began a [[Cybele#'Holy week' in March|"holy week" of festivals]] celebrating [[Cybele]] and [[Attis]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Lancellotti, Maria Grazia|title=Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God|publisher=Brill|date=2002|page=81}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Lançon, Bertrand|author-link=Bertrand Lançon|title=Rome in Late Antiquity|publisher=Routledge|date=2001|page=91}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Borgeaud, Philippe|title=Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary & Hochroth, Lysa (Translator)|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|date=2004|pages=51, 90, 123, 164}}</ref> being the day {{lang|la|Canna intrat}} ("The Reed enters"), when Attis was born and found among the reeds of a [[Phrygia|Phrygian]] river.<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History'' (Routledge, 2012), p. 88; Lancellotti, ''Attis, Between Myth and History'', p. 81.</ref> He was discovered by shepherds or the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the {{lang|la|Magna Mater}} ("Great Mother") (narratives differ).<ref>Michele Renee Salzman, ''On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (University of California Press, 1990), p. 166.</ref> A week later, on 22 March, the solemn commemoration of {{lang|la|Arbor intrat}} ("The Tree enters") commemorated the death of Attis under a pine tree. A college of priests, the {{transliteration|grc|dendrophoroi}} ("tree bearers") annually cut down a tree,<ref>Jaime Alvar, ''Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras,'' translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), pp. 288–289.</ref> hung from it an image of Attis,<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'', 27.1; Rabun Taylor, "Roman Oscilla: An Assessment", ''RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics'' 48 (Autumn 2005), p. 97.</ref> and carried it to the temple of the {{lang|la|Magna Mater}} with lamentations. The day was formalized as part of the official Roman calendar under [[Claudius]] ({{abbr|d.|died}} 54 AD).<ref>Lydus, ''De Mensibus'' 4.59; [[Suetonius]], ''Otho'' 8.3; Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88.</ref> A three-day period of mourning followed,<ref>Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88.</ref> culminating with celebrating the rebirth of Attis on 25 March, the date of the [[March equinox|vernal equinox]] on the [[Julian calendar]].<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 1.21.10; Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88; Salzman, ''On Roman Time,'' p. 168.</ref>

== Assassination of Caesar ==
{{Main|Assassination of Julius Caesar}}
[[File:Eid_Mar.jpg|thumb|[[Obverse|Reverse side]] of the [[Ides of March Coin]] (a [[denarius]]) issued by Caesar's assassin Brutus in the autumn of 42 BC, with the abbreviation ''EID MAR'' ({{lang|la|Eidibus Martiis}} – "on the Ides of March") under a "[[Pileus (hat)|cap of freedom]]" between two daggers]]
In modern times, the Ides of March is best known as the date on which [[Julius Caesar]] was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the [[Roman senate|Senate]]. As many as 60 conspirators, led by [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] and [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]], were involved. According to [[Plutarch]],<ref name="plutarch">[[Plutarch]], ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', Caesar 63</ref> a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar on the Ides of March. On his way to the [[Theatre of Pompey]], where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "Well, the Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, "Aye, they are come, but they are not gone."<ref name="plutarch" /> This meeting is famously dramatised in [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', when Caesar is warned by the [[Fortune-telling|soothsayer]] to "beware the Ides of March."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/julius_caesar/3/|title=William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II|year=2010|work=The Literature Network|publisher=Jalic, Inc|access-date=15 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/julius_caesar/9/|title=William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene I|year=2010|work=The Literature Network|publisher=Jalic, Inc|access-date=15 March 2010}}</ref> Roman biographer [[Suetonius]]<ref>Suetonius, ''Divus Julius'' 81.</ref> identifies the "seer" as a ''[[haruspex]]'' named Spurinna.

Caesar's assassination opened the final chapter in the [[crisis of the Roman Republic]]. After his victory in [[Caesar's civil war]], his death triggered a series of [[Roman civil wars|further Roman civil wars]] that would finally result in the rise to sole power of his adopted heir Octavian. In 27 BC, Octavian became emperor [[Augustus]], and thus he finally terminated the Roman Republic.<ref>"Forum in Rome," ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', p. 215.</ref> [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Writing under Augustus]], [[Ovid]] portrays the murder as a sacrilege, since Caesar was also the {{lang|la|[[pontifex maximus]]}} of Rome and a priest of [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]].<ref>Ovid, ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' 3.697–710; A.M. Keith, entry on "Ovid," ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', p. 128; Geraldine Herbert-Brown, ''Ovid and the Fasti: An Historical Study'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 70.</ref> On the fourth anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the [[siege of Perugia]], Octavian executed 300 [[Roman senate|senators]] and [[Equestrian order|equites]] who had fought against him under [[Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)|Lucius Antonius]], the brother of [[Mark Antony]].<ref>Melissa Barden Dowling, ''Clemency and Cruelty in the Roman World'' (University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp. 50–51; Arthur Keaveney, ''The Army in the Roman Revolution'' (Routledge, 2007), p. 15.</ref> The executions were one of a series of actions taken by Octavian to avenge Caesar's death. Suetonius and the historian [[Cassius Dio]] characterised the slaughter as a [[Sacrifice in ancient Roman religion|religious sacrifice]],<ref>Suetonius, ''Life of Augustus'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html#15 15.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043834/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus%2A.html#15|date=31 July 2022}}</ref><ref>[[Cassius Dio]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/48*.html#14 48.14.2.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122175355/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/48%2A.html#14|date=22 November 2022}}</ref> noting that it occurred on the Ides of March at the new altar to the [[Divus Julius|deified Julius]].

== See also ==

* [[The Ides of March (novel)|''The Ides of March'']] – a 1948 novel by [[Thornton Wilder]]
* [[The Ides of March (band)|The Ides of March]] (est. 1964) – an American musical group
* [[Killers (Iron Maiden album)|"The Ides of March"]] – a 1981 song by [[Iron Maiden]]
* [[The Ides of March (Silverstein song)|"The Ides of March"]] – a 2005 song by [[Silverstein (band)|Silverstein]]
* ''The Ides of March'' – a 2008 novel by [[Valerio Massimo Manfredi]]
* [[The Ides of March (2011 film)|''The Ides of March'']] – a 2011 film by [[George Clooney]], [[Beau Willimon]] and [[Grant Heslov]]
* ''[[The Ides of March (album)|The Ides of March]]'' – a 2021 music album by [[Myles Kennedy]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Life of Julius Caesar]
* [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/nicolaus.html Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus (translated by Clayton M. Hall)]

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Julius Caesar}}

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