Beware the Ides of March! Julius Caesar's Fateful Day

ThoughtCo

by N.S. Gill Updated February 28, 2018

The Ides of March ("Eidus Martiae" in Latin) is a day on the traditional Roman calendar that corresponds to the date of March 15th on our current calendar. Today the date is commonly associated with bad luck, a reputation that it earned at the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100–43 BCE).

 A Warning
In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar's rule in Rome was in trouble. Caesar was a demagogue, a ruler who set his own rules, frequently bypassing the Senate to do what he liked, and finding supporters in the Roman proletariat and his soldiers.

The Senate made Caesar dictator for life in February of that year, but in truth, he had been the military dictator governing Rome from the field since 49. When he returned to Rome, he kept his stringent rules.

According to the Roman historian Suetonius (690–130 CE), the haruspex (seeress) Spurinna warned Caesar in mid-February 44, telling him that the next 30 days were to be fraught with peril, but the danger would end on the Ides of March. When they met on the Ides of March Caesar said "you are aware, surely, that the Ides of March have passed" and Spurinna responded, "surely you realize that they have not yet passed?"
CAESAR to SOOTHSAYER: The Ides of March are come.
SOOTHSAYER (softly): Ay, Caesar, but not gone.
—Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

What Are Ides, Anyway?
The Roman calendar did not number days of an individual month sequentially from first to last as is done today. Rather than sequential numbering, the Romans counted backwards from three specific points in the lunar month, depending on the length of the month.

 Those points were the Nones (which fell on the fifth in months with 30 days and the seventh day in 31-day months), the Ides (the thirteenth or the fifteenth), and the Kalends (the first of the following month). The Ides typically occurred near a month’s midpoint; specifically on the fifteenth in March. The length of the month was determined by the number of days in the moon's cycle: March's Ides date was determined by the full moon.

Why Caesar Had to Die
There were said to be several plots to kill Caesar and for a multitude of reasons. According to Suetonius, the Sybelline oracle had declared that Parthia could only be conquered by a Roman king, and the Roman consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta was planning to call for Caesar to be named king in mid-March.

The senators feared Caesar's power, and that he might overthrow the senate in favor of general tyranny. Brutus and Cassius, the main conspirators in the plot to kill Caesar, were magistrates of the Senate, and as they would not be allowed to either oppose the crowning of Caesar nor remain silent, they had to kill him.

A Historical Moment
Before Caesar went to the theater of Pompey to attend the Senate meeting, he had been given advice not to go, but he did not listen. Doctors had advised him not to go for medical reasons, and his wife, Calpurnia, also did not want him to go based off of troubling dreams that she had.

On the Ides of March, 44 BCE, Caesar was murdered, stabbed to death by the conspirators near the Theatre of Pompey where the Senate was meeting.

Caesar’s assassination transformed Roman history, as it was a central event in marking the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. His assassination resulted directly in the Liberator’s Civil War, which was waged to avenge his death.

With Caesar gone, the Roman Republic did not last long and was eventually replaced by the Roman Empire, which lasted approximately 500 years. The initial two centuries of the Roman Empire’s existence were known to be a time of supreme and unprecedented stability and prosperity. The time period came to be known as “Roman Peace.”

Anna Perenna Festival
Before it became notorious as the day of Caesar's death, the Ides of March was a day of religious observations on the Roman calendar, and it is possible that the conspirators chose the date because of that.

In ancient Rome, a festival for Anna Perenna (Annae festum geniale Pennae) was held on the Ides of March. Perenna was a Roman deity of the circle of the year. Her festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year, as March was the first month of the year on the original Roman calendar. Thus, Perenna’s festival was celebrated enthusiastically by the common people with picnics, eating, drinking, games, and general revelry.

The Anna Perenna festival was, like many Roman carnivals, a time when celebrants could subvert traditional power relations between social classes and gender roles when people were allowed to speak freely about sex and politics. Most importantly the conspirators could count on the absence of at least a part of the proletariat from the center of the city, while others would be watching the gladiator's games.

Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst

Sources
Balsdon, J. P. V. D. "The Ides of March." Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 7.1 (1958): 80-94. Print.
Horsfall N. 1974. The Ides of March: Some New Problems. Greece & Rome 21(2):191-199.
Horsfall, Nicholas. "The Ides of March: Some New Problems." Greece & Rome 21.2 (1974): 191-99. Print.
Newlands, Carole. "Transgressive Acts: Ovid's Treatment of the Ides of March." Classical Philology 91.4 (1996): 320-38. Print.
Ramsey, John T. "'Beware the Ides of March!': An Astrological Prediction?" The Classical Quarterly 50.2 (2000): 440-54. Print.

The Ides of March: The Assassination of Julius Caesar Explained

Made from History

BY COLIN RICKETTS

 The date that Julius Caesar, the most famous Roman of them all, was killed at or on his way to the Senate is one of the most famous in world history. The events of the Ides of March – March 15th in the modern calendar – in 44 BC had enormous consequences for Rome, triggering a series of civil wars that saw Caesar’s great-nephew Octavian secure his place as Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.

 But what actually happened on this famous date? The answer must be that we will never know in any great detail or with any great certainty.

There is no eye-witness account of Caesar’s death. Nicolaus of Damascus wrote the earliest surviving account, probably around 14 AD. While some people believe he may have spoken to witnesses, nobody knows for sure, and his book was written for Augustus so may be biased. Suetonius’ telling of the tale is also believed to be fairly accurate, possibly using eye-witness testimony, but was written around 121 AD.

 The Conspiracy Against Caesar
Even the briefest study of Roman politics will open a can of worms rich in plotting and conspiracies. Rome’s institutions were relatively stable for their time, but military strength and popular support (as Caesar himself showed), could rewrite the rules very quickly. Power was always up for grabs.

 Caesar’s extraordinary personal power was bound to excite opposition. Rome was then a republic and doing away with the arbitrary and often-abused power of kings was one of its founding principles.

Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger – a key conspirator.

 In 44 BC Caesar had been appointed dictator (a post previously awarded only temporarily and in times of great crisis) with no time limit on the term. The people of Rome certainly saw him as a king, and he may have already have been regarded as a god.

 More than 60 high-ranking Romans, including Marcus Junius Brutus, who may have been Caesar’s illegitimate son, decided to do away with Caesar. They called themselves the Liberators, and their ambition was to restore the power of the Senate.

 The Ides of March
This is what Nicolaus of Damascus records:

 The conspirators considered a number of plans for killing Caesar, but settled on an attack in the Senate, where their togas would provide cover for their blades.

 Rumours of a plot were going around and some of Caesar’s friends tried to stop him going to the Senate. His doctors were concerned by dizzy spells he was suffering and his wife, Calpurnia, had had worrying dreams. Brutus stepped in to reassure Caesar that he would be fine.

He is said to have made some sort of religious sacrifice, revealing bad omens, despite several attempts to find something more encouraging. Again many friends warned him to go home, and again Brutus reassured him.

 In the Senate, one of the plotters, Tilius Cimber, approached Caesar under the pretext of pleading for his exiled brother. He grabbed Caesar’s toga, preventing him from standing and apparently signalling the attack.

 Nicolaus recounts a messy scene with men injuring each other as they scramble to kill Caesar. Once Caesar was down, more conspirators rushed in, perhaps keen to make their mark on history, and he was reportedly stabbed 35 times.

 Caesar’s famous last words, ‘Et tu, Brute?’ are almost certainly an invention, given longevity by William Shakespeare’s dramatised version of events.

 The Aftermath: Republican Ambitions Backfire, War Ensues
Expecting a hero’s reception, the assassins ran out into the streets announcing to the people of Rome that they were free again.

 But Caesar had been enormously popular, particularly with ordinary people who had seen Rome’s military triumphant while they had been well treated and entertained by Caesar’s lavish public entertainments. Caesar’s supporters were ready to use this people power to support their own ambitions.

The Senate voted an amnesty for the assassins, but Caesar’s chosen heir, Octavian, was quick to return to Rome from Greece to explore his options, recruiting Caesar’s soldiers to his cause as he went. Caesar’s supporter, Mark Antony, also opposed the Liberators, but may have had ambitions of his own. He and Octavian entered into a shaky alliance as the first fighting of a civil war began in northern Italy.

 On November 27th, 43 BC, the Senate named Antony and Octavian as two heads of a Triumvirate, together with Caesar’s friend and ally Lepidus, tasked with taking on Brutus and Cassius, two of the Liberators. They set about murdering many of their opponents in Rome for good measure.

 The Liberators were defeated in two battles in Greece, allowing the Triumvirate to rule for an uneasy 10 years.

 Mark Antony then made his move, marrying Cleopatra, Caesar’s lover and queen of Egypt, and planning to use Egypt’s wealth to fund his own ambitions. Both of them committed suicide in 30 BC after Octavian’s decisive victory at the naval Battle of Actium.

 By 27 BC Octavian could rename himself Caesar Augustus. He would go on to be remembered as the first Emperor of Rome.

Beware the Ides of March! Julius Caesar's Fateful Day

ThoughtCo

by N.S. Gill Updated November 18, 2016

The Ides of March (Eidus Martiae in Latin) is a day on the traditional Roman calendar that corresponds to the date of March 15th on our current calendar. It is most commonly associated with the assassination of Julius Caesar, on the Ides of March in the year 44 BC.

A WARNING
The Ides of March became well-known and notorious as the official date of Julius Caesar’s assassination in the year 44 BC. Caesar’s assassination was the result of a conspiracy by a coalition of Roman senators.
 CAESAR to SOOTHSAYER: The Ides of March are come.
 SOOTHSAYER (softly): Ay, Caesar, but not gone.
 —Shakespeare's Julius Caesar 

According to Catullus, the haruspex Spurinna warned Caesar in mid-February 44, telling him that the next 30 days were to be fraught with peril, but the danger would end on the Ides of March. When they met on the Ides of March Caesar said "you are aware, surely, that the Ides of March have passed" and Spurinna responded, "surely you realize that they have not yet passed?"

 THE NICK OF TIME: WHY CAESAR HAD TO DIE
There were said to be several plots to kill Caesar and for a multitude of reasons. According to Suetonius, the Sybelline oracle had declared that Parthia could only be conquered by a Roman king, and Cotta was planning to call for Caesar to be named king in mid-March. Brutus and Cassius, the main conspirators in the plot to kill Caesar, were magistrates of the Senate, and as they would not be allowed to either oppose the crowning of Caesar nor remain silent, they had to kill him.

 Caesar was a demagogue, a ruler who set his own rules bypassing the Senate to do what he liked, finding supporters in the Roman proletariat and his soldiers. The senate made Caesar dictator for life in February, but in truth, he had been the military dictator governing Rome from the field since 49. When he returned to Rome, he kept his stringent rules.

 The senators feared his power, and that he might overthrow the senate in favor of general tyranny. He was murdered near the Theatre of Pompey where the Senate was meeting on the Ides of March.

 WHAT ARE IDES, ANYWAY?
The Roman calendar did not number days of an individual month sequentially from first to last as is done today. Rather than sequential numbering, the Romans counted backwards from three specific points in the lunar month, depending on the length of the month.

 Those points were the Nones (which fell on the fifth in months with 30 days and the seventh day in 31 day months), the Ides (the thirteenth or the fifteenth), and the Kalends (the first of the following month). The Ides typically occurred near a month’s midpoint; specifically on the fifteenth in March. The length of the month was determined by the number of days in the moon's cycle: March's Ides date was determined by the full moon.

 A HISTORICAL MOMENT
Before Caesar went to the theater of Pompey to attend the Senate meeting, he had been given advice not to go, but he did not listen. Doctors had advised him not to go for medical reasons, and his wife, Calpurnia, also did not want him to go based off of troubling dreams that she had.

 Caesar’s assassination transformed Roman history, as it was a central event in marking the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. His assassination resulted directly in the Liberator’s Civil War, which was waged to avenge his death.

 With Caesar gone, the Roman Republic did not last long and was eventually replaced by the Roman Empire, which lasted approximately 500 years. The initial two centuries of the Roman Empire’s existence were known to be a time of supreme and unprecedented stability and prosperity. The time period came to be known as “Roman Peace.”

 ANNA PERENNA FESTIVAL
Before it became notorious as the day of Caesar's death, the Ides of March was a day of religious observations on the Roman calendar, and it is possible that the conspirators chose the date because of that.

 In ancient Rome, a festival for Anna Perenna (Annae festum geniale Pennae) was held on the Ides of March. Perenna was a Roman deity of the circle of the year. Her festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year, as March was the first month of the year on the original Roman calendar. Thus, Perenna’s festival was celebrated enthusiastically by the common people with picnics, eating, drinking, games, and general revelry.

 The Anna Perenna festival was, like many Roman carnivals, a time when celebrants could subvert traditional power relations between social classes and gender roles when people were allowed to speak freely about sex and politics. Most importantly the conspirators could count on the absence of at least a part of the proletariat from the center of the city, while others would be watching the gladiator's games.

 SOURCES
Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst
 Balsdon JPVD. 1958. The Ides of March. Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 7(1):80-94. Horsfall N. 1974. The Ides of March: Some New Problems. Greece & Rome 21(2):191-199. Newlands C. 1996. Transgressive Acts: Ovid's Treatment of the Ides of March. Classical Philology 91(4):320-338.
Ramsey JT. 2000. 'Beware the Ides of March!': An Astrological Prediction? The Classical Quarterly 50(2):440-454.

History Trivia - BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

March 15

44 BC Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March. He had appointed his great-nephew, Octavian, as his heir. Civil war broke out between Caesar's assassins and his successors (Mark Antony and Octavian).

Beware the Ides of March

March 15, 44 BC Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March. He had appointed his great-nephew, Octavian, as his heir. Civil war broke out between Caesar's assassins and his successors (Mark Antony and Octavian).

Beware the Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March ! March 15, 44 BC Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March. He had appointed his great-nephew, Octavian, as his heir. Civil war broke out between Caesar's assassins and his successors (Mark Antony and Octavian).