![]() Several religious festivals were held on the ides, and that date was also considered to be a deadline for settling debts. Days between the first of the month and the seventh were referred to as “before the nones,” and days between the nones and the ides as “before the ides.” In longer months, like March, the ides landed on the 15 th day of the month, and in shorter months, they were on the 13 th day. The first day of the month was called the kalends and the seventh day the nones. In the ancient Roman calendar, the ides was simply a name for the midpoint of each month, signifying the rise of a full moon. In 26 B.C., the Roman Senate gave Octavian the name Augustus, which means “exalted one.” Having had no sons, Caesar had adopted Octavian, who ultimately became the first emperor of Rome and ruled for 40 years. Alas, Caesar’s assassination prompted civil wars, and the only person to emerge victorious was Caesar’s great nephew, Octavian. ![]() When Cassius and Brutus first begin to conspire against Caesar, in Shakespeare’s account, Brutus professes love for Caesar but decides that he loves Rome more. The conspirators’ motive for assassinating Caesar, who had declared himself dictator for life, was the restoration of the Roman Republic. The emperor failed to heed Spurinna’s advice and was stabbed to death by a group of 60 conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, on March 15, 44 B.C. Spurinna was a haruspex, skilled in the art of analyzing the entrails of sacrificial animals, such that he purportedly could predict the near future. History confirms that because Roman society was superstitious, the real-life dictator Julius Caesar employed a seer named Spurinna, who repeatedly warned him about impending treachery for a month leading up to the ides of March. On his way to a Senate meeting, in the first scene of Act III, Caesar says to the soothsayer, as if to justify his disbelief, “The ides of March are come,” to which the prophet replies, “Ay, Caesar but not gone,” to let him know that the danger has not yet passed. The imperative is a soothsayer’s warning to Caesar, “shriller than all the music.” Not only does it land on deaf ears, but Caesar also recounts the prophecy on the day of his own death. Even the most dispassionate student of Shakespeare probably knows the line, “Beware the ides of March,” from Act I, scene ii of the play Julius Caesar, which was first performed in 1599.
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