"Beware of the Ides of March"

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Today’s Blog Post

Beware of the Ides of March
I don’t remember the class or the grade that I first heard of this date and its importance in history. I do know that it was Julius Caesar that we were looking at when it was brought up. I am pretty sure that the teacher dropped it on us about February of that year and we watched closely for the 15th of March and which one of our teachers would be murdered.

Terrible thought I know. But the whole idea that the teacher dropped on us that day was the Roman’s way of thinking about the 15th of March. It was the day that Julius Caesar was murdered and Shakespeare made sure that every student would suffer from that event from that day forward by writing what he did.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like literature and the books that I had to read – it was that each book fired off a million thoughts per page and made it hard to read all that I had to read. I was a fast reader – but was slowed down by the vivid imagination that required time to savour each thought or picture image.

Wikipedia states… quote…
The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 709 AUC or 44 B.C.


According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated) Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to "beware the Ides of March.”  end quote.

Hmmm? So it was about March and Mars – the God of War being celebrated. The date was made famous in that Julius Caesar met his end that day. Perhaps chosen because the lessened security and commotion would give the assassins the cover they needed.

It is interesting that “stuff happens” on the Ides of March. Like General George Washington quelling a mutiny of his Officers in 1783.

One of the guys in my class was a class clown. He had a knife in his pocket(never allowed today) and proceeded to stab his Julius Caesar book on his desk. The tip of the blade penetrated the hard cover and the first few chapters. We all cheered. That guy became a lawyer first and then a Politician later.

Maybe there was something about this day.

I am not superstitious. I will not go into hiding today – which some people have done in the past.

Mars will not have too much effect on my life today. I don’t think. It likely will be behind the clouds anyway.

But today brings back pleasant memories and fun days when I was young.

And it is funny also that more and more of the old memories are coming back like a flood. In that literature class so long ago and the discovery of the Ides of March – there were few old memories.

What a difference 50 years makes. Hokey Mokey!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March