Scottish Country Dance of the Day

The Ides of March refers to March 15 in the ancient Roman calendar. In Roman timekeeping, months were not counted simply by numbered days as they are today. Instead, they were organized around three key markers: the Kalends (the first day of the month), the Nones, and the Ides, which fell roughly in the middle of the month. In March, May, July, and October the Ides occurred on the 15th, while in most other months they fell on the 13th. The word Ides likely comes from a Latin term meaning “to divide,” reflecting its role as the midpoint of the month and its original association with the full moon in the early Roman lunar calendar.

In ancient Rome the Ides of March was not originally an ominous date. It was actually a day with religious and civic significance. The Romans held ceremonies honoring Jupiter, the chief god of the Roman pantheon, and the day was also used for practical matters such as settling debts. Because the Roman year originally began in March, the Ides of March represented the first full moon of the new year, making it a moment of particular symbolic importance in Roman culture.

The day became famous—and infamous—because of the events of March 15, 44 BCE, when the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators during a meeting of the Senate. Around 60 conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius, took part in the plot. They feared that Caesar’s growing power and his position as dictator threatened the traditional Roman Republic. Caesar was stabbed multiple times in the Senate chamber, an act that dramatically changed the course of Roman history.

The assassination did not restore the Republic as the conspirators hoped. Instead, it triggered a series of civil wars that ultimately led to the rise of Octavian (Augustus) as Rome’s first emperor. The Ides of March thus became a turning point marking the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Over time the date gained a reputation for betrayal, political intrigue, and ill-fated warnings.

Much of the modern cultural image of the Ides of March comes from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. In the drama, a soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March,” a line that has become one of the most famous quotations in English literature. Caesar dismisses the warning, only to be killed later that day by the conspirators. Because of Shakespeare’s enduring influence, the phrase “Ides of March” has become shorthand for a moment of looming danger, betrayal, or dramatic historical fate.

For more on Julius Caesar's impact on the calendar year, click the painting of Caesar havingt a really bad day on the Ides of March by Vincenzo Camucci, 1806.