Long before horror author Stephen King was on bestseller lists, Shakespeare was making the ides of March sound pretty scary in his play Julius Caesar. In Act 1, the soothsayer Artemidorus warns Caesar to “beware the ides of March” shortly before his assassination on that fated day. Were the ides to blame for Caesar’s death? Should we also be wary of these ides?
The answer is no, as “ides” is simply an ancient Roman term for the day that falls in the middle of a month. It refers to the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of other months. The Roman calendar was a lunar calendar, and the dates weren’t based around the concept of a week, but instead around the phases of the moon. It’s also important to note the Romans didn’t number the days of the months sequentially; their day planners (if they existed) were based around three key moments: “kalends” (the first of the month), “nones” (the ninth day before the ides), and “ides” (the 13th or 15th, depending on the month). We get the word “calendar” from the Latin kalends.
Here’s how this system worked in practice, using March as an example. What we call March 1 was the “kalends of March.” March 2 through March 6 were called “X days before the nones of March,” March 7 translated to the “nones of March,” March 8 through March 14 were “X days before the ides of March,” and March 15 was the “ides of March.” The 16th through the last day of the month were “X days before the kalends of April.”
While the phrase “ides of March” may be particularly famous due to Julius Caesar, it’s just another day, at the end of the day. We hope you take solace in knowing there’s nothing to be wary of.
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