Ides of March.
Be-ware & Be Aware!
The Ides of March – What does this signify?
“Ides” is a word that means the middle of the month.
As we are now in March, it refers to the middle of March.
March 15…this year, 2024 (AD).
Ides meant “middle” of the month.
From the Latin “idus” – the day in the middle of the month.
Idus also means “to divine” as in diving the month in two.
In Chinese “ides” means “to see.”
Notice the words “ides.” I try to write it but the word always ends up to be “idea.” Interesting.

For us today, here & now – the middle of the mondh (Ides) means to pause, to listen, to assess before we move forward into the last half of the month. What are our goals hopes wishes & dreams?
This is a good use for the “Idea” of March & of any month.

Ides was the way to mark a date in the middle of each month.
In the Roman calendar.
On this day in 44 BC (before Christ), the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar was killed.
The Ides of March is mentioned in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. It is referred to ominously by a soothsayer.
A soothsayer utters this warning to the soon-to-be-assassinated ruler, cautioning him, “Beware the Ides of March.”
Beware O Caesar King of Rome, beware on” the 15th of March.”
Caesar ignores this prophecy and is killed on March 15, 44 AD, stabbed by betrayal at the hands of his allies.

The Ides of March is about being aware of & preventing tragedy.
A struggle against or ignoring possible events. It brings up the idea of betrayal – betraying another and/or being betrayed by those close to us. Ceasar was assassinated by his former friends.

Beware the Ides of March.
The dramatic line reflected by real historical events that occurred March 15, in the year 44 AD. Though Julius Caesar received his warning over 2,000 years ago, the phrase is still used today when referencing the date or more generally when cautioning about impending events.

It relates to astrology – in the fact that we are able to know of certain times when we may be challenged. This is seen in the study of one’s “transits” (when certain planets “touch” upon one or more of our birth planets).

As Shakespeare’s play captures, Caesar was said to have been forewarned that March 15 would bring him great peril. The man issuing this warning was a seer who sensed the impending danger facing the Roman leader.

History
The Ides of March, known as Idus Martii in Latin, refers to the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar. In ancient Rome, the Ides were considered an important marker for certain religious observances and political activities. Each of the Ides was sacred to Jupiter, the Roman’s supreme deity.

The Ides were also used as markers for certain religious observances and political activities, including the settling of debts and the payment of taxes. They were also important dates for the performance of public ceremonies, such as the opening of the gladiatorial games. But the Ides of March gained notoriety due to one fateful event – the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BC.

Why was Caesar killed? According to Bruce Bueno de Mesquita in The Dictator’s Handbook, Caesar’s murder was (obviously politically motivated) due to him helping the people at the expense of many of his backers or Rome’s most influential people. Caesar helped the poor citizens, such as by providing land grants to former soldiers, getting rid of tax farming, and relieving the people’s debt burden by 25%. This came at the expense of Rome’s prominent citizens, such as those who were owed money or were large landowners (i.e. tax farmers or wanted to buy more land). These people were well-represented in the Roman Senate and killed him.

Caesar was warned of his fate multiple times. Interestingly, on that fateful day Caesar woke up not feeling well, his wife tries to make him stay home but at the last second he’s like “I might as well go into work today.”

Calendars & Lunar Cycles
The “Ides of March” is a reference to the historical Roman calendar dating system, which is the forerunner of our modern calendar dating system, and to a story recounted originally by Plutarch, a classical biographer of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar.

The Romans did not count the days from the start of each month 1,2,3, …31 as we do now: Instead they identified three days in each month that had pivotal meaning based on the predecessor lunar calendars, which had religious and superstitious significance derived from the phases of the lunar cycle. The “Ides” fell either on the 13th or the 15th day. In the lunar calendar, the Ides nominally marked the day of the full moon.

Reading Shakespeare
‘A soothsayer warned Caesar to beware of great danger on that day in the month of March which the Romans call “the Ides”. When that day came Caesar was on his way to the council chamber, he greeted the soothsayer mockingly, saying”Well then, the Ides of March have come!” – but the soothsayer replied quietly saying: “Indeed, they have come, … but they are not yet gone.’

This story is reinvented by Shakespeare in Act 1 scene 2 of his play Julius Caesar

Soothsayer. Caesar!

Caesar. Ha! who calls?

Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!

Caesar. Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,

Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.

Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.

Caesar. What man is that?

Brutus. A soothsayer bids you Beware the ides of March.

Caesar. Set him before me; let me see his face.

Cassius. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.

Caesar. What say’st thou to me now? speak once again.

Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.

Caesar. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

Beware the Ides of March” implies the then general Roman superstitious belief in a change of fortune/fate happening in relation to the changing phases of the moon, and Caesar, the man of action, dismissing it & the seer “as a dream.”
And Caesar then “met his “fated & fateful fate.”

And now we have read a bit of Shakespeare!
And know what the Ides (the idea) means.