You've heard this familiar phrase before which marks a day of infamy for the Roman Republic. 
Some people get a little nutty about superstitions and foreboding dates such as this, but I tend to flavor my outlook on the present and future with a little seasoning of pragmatism, in which one would look into the past to decipher people and ideas through their historical context. Ides, meaning the 15th (or 13th) of a given month in an ancient Roman calendar, really doesn't seem to be so perilous a date, save for Caesar's assassination, which many might not consider so heinous a crime.
Consequently, I think now would be a perfect time to educate ourselves on the life and death of this greater known character in history, Julius Caesar, rather than create in our minds a new Friday the 13th of sorts or something of that nature.
Primary Sources
Full Text of Caesar, by Plutarch (MIT)
Full Text of The Lives of the Caesars, by Suetonius
Full Text of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare (SparkNotes)
Julius Caesar Biographies
from Encyclopaedia Britannica
from Wikipedia.com
from Encyclopedia.com
Other Links
Article on the Ides of March (National Geographic)
Julius Caesar Quotes
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Beware the Ides of March
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2 comments:
Haha... I swear I didn't see your blog first before I posted mine!
funny, I was thinking there was a relationship between the ides of march and jabberwocky. guess the word "beware" is the only relationship. truly it is the ides of april that give me the greatest grief.
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