Saturday, 15 March 2014

Beware the Ides of March

From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 1601. 'Beware the Ides of March' is the soothsayer's message to Julius Caesar, warning of his death.

The Ides of March didn't signify anything special in itself - this was just the usual way of saying "March 15th". The notion of the Ides being a dangerous date was purely an invention of Shakespeare's; each month has an Ides (often the 15th) and this date wasn't significant in being associated with death prior to 1601.