The Ides of March 2021
Back in my horrid school days I studied Julius Caesar by Shakespeare in the English class of Mrs Louise Belton at Wagener-Salley High School; with whom I got a long quite grandly over the year by the way.I was in a classroom of fellow 'underachievers' as determined by the incompetents of the Aiken County School district 4 and as usual my performance was way above any of my peers because of the failure of those in charge to realize who "couldn't" from those who "simply didn't" do the work.
Anyway, it was during this period of time that I came to understand what the "ides of march" was to both the ending of Julius Caesar and the rest of the calendar events of that particular timeframe.
The ancient Roman calendar had a number of milestones used in the calculation of time increments ...
| Kalends | (the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar), |
| Nones | (the ninth day before the ides in the ancient Roman calendar), and |
| Ides | (a day falling roughly in the middle of each month from which other dates were calculated in the ancient Roman calendar) |
These ancient markers were used to reference dates in relation to lunar phases.
Ides referred to the first full moon of a month. This typically fell on the 13th or 15th of that month.
The Ides of March once signified a new year and called for festive events with celebration, frolicing, and rejoicing.
-by-Vincenzo-Camuccini.jpg "detail: The Death of Julius Caesar (1806) by Vincenzo Camuccini") detail: The Death of Julius Caesar (1806) by Vincenzo Camuccini |