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Back Stage => Mundane Topics => Topic started by: Welsh Wench on March 15, 2011, 10:08:38 PM

Title: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Welsh Wench on March 15, 2011, 10:08:38 PM
The Ides of March is the name of March 15th probably referring to the day of the full moon. The term was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months.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 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and 60 other co-conspirators.

On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, Caesar visited with a seer who had foretold that harm would come to him not later than the Ides of March. Caesar joked, "Well, the Ides of March have come", to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone."



(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Cesar-sa_mort.jpg/800px-Cesar-sa_mort.jpg)

Happy Ides of March, everyone!

And a little history lesson thrown in..... :D
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Lady Kett on March 15, 2011, 10:22:20 PM
It's also my bosses' birthday. He doesn't quite get why I giggle at his date of birth. A history buff, he is not.
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Gauwyn of Bracknell on March 16, 2011, 05:58:28 AM
a quote from vilification tennis - "is celebrating the Ides of March by plotting to kill our best friend" :) :)
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Lady Renee Buchanan on March 16, 2011, 06:54:23 AM
When I was a sophmore in HS, a long time ago!, we were reading Julius Caesar around this same time.  So for March 15th, everyone in our class made cardboard knives, and at a pre-arranged time, we all jumped out of our seats, held up our knives, and yelled, "Beware the Ides of March" and pretended to run towards the teacher.

Luckily, he had a great sense of humor and laughed about it.
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Merlin the Elder on March 16, 2011, 08:25:26 AM
It was tradition at our high school to stir up some kind of trouble on the Ides of March in Latin class. Catholic school...lots of Latin in those days...  One year, I became the "teacher" and arrived dressed in a cassock borrowed from another priest. Other students escorted him to a seat in the front row of the class.  I parodied our teacher's mannerisms and voice, hoping I would not be damned to hell for my comic characterizations of a priest.   Hadn't thought of that in years...thanks for the thread. It brought back one of only a few pleasant memories of that school.
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: mehan on March 16, 2011, 08:50:59 AM
How ironic is it that we were watching episode 12 of the HBO series "ROME" last night  - which is the episode in which Caesar is stabbed?
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: DonaCatalina on March 16, 2011, 10:19:47 AM
Mehan,
you could almost wonder if they planned it that way.
I have been in love with Gaius Julius Caesar since I read his commentaries on his wars.
I would have loved to have read his 'Cicero'.
So I wear black every March 15.
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: The Lady Mercedes on March 16, 2011, 08:55:01 PM
After what happened to me yesterday, this makes much more sense...lol
Title: Re: Beware the Ides of March
Post by: Butch on March 16, 2011, 09:06:17 PM
DANG!  Missed Ides of March yesterday; missed Pi Day on Monday; working both day and night for St Patricks Day tomorrow!  What a March this year has been for me!