Should You Beware the Ides of March?

us wary? Ancient Romans, those clever folks known for aqueducts and amphitheaters, also had a hand in developing a predecessor to our modern calendar. The name they created for the first day of each month, Calends, eventually led to the modern word calendar. They also determined that one day each month would be known as IDEs, a day that often

corresponded with religious observances. According to their reckoning, the IDEs fell on the thirteenth day of you each month, with the exceptions of March, May, July, and October when the iides occurred on the fifteenth. But it was the iides of March that became a real stickler. It presented a deadline on which citizens were expected to settle all of their debts. It became a day of celebration for those who received payment, and a day of woe for those

who paid. For many, it was probably a little both. The concept of IDEs was closely tied to the way people of ancient Rome tracked the passage of time. The Latin route of eyd means to divide, and in keeping with the sentiment, the iides took place about midway through each month. The iides also corresponded with the rise of the full moon. This worked well for as long as the lunar cycle and the calendar months matched up as expected. Eventually, however,

a mismatch between the two was apparent. A solution was presented in about forty five BCE, when days were added or removed so that the calendar would stay in sync with astronomical seasons such as solstices and equinoxes. The resulting Julian calendar was based on Earth's revolutions around the Sun. It was a three hundred and sixty five day year divided into twelve months, with an additional day added every four years to resink the calendar, an event now known

as a leak year. The Julian calendar was named posthumously for the military general and politician Julius Caesar, who had declared himself ruler of the Roman Republic back in forty nine BCE. For the article this episode is based on How Stuffworks. Spoke by email, Kelly Ann Diamond, PhD, an assistant teaching professor at Villanova University. She said, what is interesting is that the change came about after Caesar had spent some time in Egypt, specifically in the city of Alexandria.

The Egyptians had developed previously a calendar of three hundred and sixty five days. However, they did not add that extra day, so the Egyptian calendar drifted one day every

four years. Through ancient writings, including those of the philosopher Plutarch, it was recorded that Caesar sought help from expert mathematicians, including in Alexandria, and adjusting the calendar, and Diamond said this is important to note because ancient Egypt does not always receive the credit it deserves as part of the

foundation of Western culture. Usually the story begins and ends with Julius Caesar and relegated to the footnotes is the fact that the Egyptians were technologically savvy and passed on their wisdom to the Roman world. For a time, this Julian calendar seemed to propose an ideal solution, until people realized that an extra day every four years was too many, and a modified Gregorian calendar was developed in fifteen eighty two. The Gregorian calendar is now used as the official civilian

time tracker in most parts of the world. Even so, the IDEs of March from the Julian calendar is still part of our collective consciousness, thanks in large part to Caesar's untimely debt and the Shakespeare play that immortalized it. Okay in forty four BCE, about five years into Julius Caesar's rule of Rome, things seemed to be going well.

He had a number of military victories under his belt after taking over parts of what's now Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, and he was generally quite popular among his constituents. As Caesar had appointed several political leaders the comprised Rome Senate, but tensions were building. Members of the Senate worried that Caesar's mounting popularity and his recent self appointment as dictator in perpetuity would lead to a disastrous political outcome for Rome.

Some senators feared Caesar would disband the Senate and rule of his own accord without their input. The brewing opposition to Caesar's rule came to a head on the IDEs of March March fifteenth in forty five for BCE, when about forty Roman senators stabbed Caesar to death as the group was on its way to a sporting event at the Theater of Pompeii in Rome. The conspiracy, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, was kept under

wraps by the dozens of senators involved. Houstuffworks also spoke by email with Kate Wiswell, historical hobbyist and author. As she said, Julius Caesar managed to anger enough people that he was taken out by his own senate for the greater good. Sadly, his removal did not usher in the revolution people had hoped for, because they fought so much about how to replace him that they ended up with

yet another empirical Caesar just like him. After a period of public outrage and a series of civil wars, Caesar's nephew Octavian began calling himself Caesar Augustus and claimed rule of what would become the Roman Empire, ending ancient Rome's brush with the government ruled by representatives of the people. But fast forward to the turn of the sixteen hundreds ce Throughout the Renaissance there had been a renewed interest in cultural touchstones of the past as a way to

help society move forward. This included an interest in, for example, the historical events of ancient Rome. Back in the thirteen hundreds, Dante had written Brutus and Cassius into the deepest part of the Deepest Circle of Hell in his work Inferno. It's no surprise that Shakespeare chose this richly metaphored and

richly biographed story is the basis of a play. Julius Caesar was probably the first play performed upon the grand opening of the New Globe Theater in fifteen ninety nine, and it was actually just one of four plays about

Caesar from that decade that have survived. But the ethical questions that Shakespeare's play raises have helped it survive across centuries, and with it the line beware the IDEs of March, spoken to Caesar by a Susai, predictor of the future, whom Caesar promptly ignores, so that's where the phrase comes from and why you probably don't need to beware of March fifteenth, unless you're getting a little overly ambitious there.

If so, might want to check that today's episode is based on the article no need to beware the IDEs of March actually on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Lareel Dove. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.