Beware The Ides Of March, Armonk

While Julius Caesar should have listened to the soothsayer who warned him about the Ides of March, the rest of us have very little to worry about on March 15.

This Tusculum portrait of Julius Caesar is said to be the only surviving portrait of the doomed Roman emperor created during his lifetime. The expression, "Beware the Ides of March," springs from a soothsayer's warning in a Shakespeare tragedy.
Photo Credit: *Wikipedia*

Carol Reif

03/15/2016 6:30 a.m.

The day observed on the Roman calendar and marked with religious rituals is most associated with the oft-quoted phrase “Beware the Ides of March” in Shakespeare’s dramatization of the doomed emperor’s assassination in 44 B.C.

And talking about pointed remarks, let’s not forget Caesar’s pithy and poignant last words as he was being stabbed to death by a pack of traitorous senators, including his ally, Brutus: “Et tu, Brute?”

The connotations of danger were really just a Shakespearean invention, and didn’t take root until the early 17th century.

According to the National Geographic, even in Roman times the "Ides" was just a way of indicating the day that fell in middle part of the month -- the word’s Latin roots mean “divide” – and was usually used as a deadline for settling debts.

Come to think of it, the fast-approaching April deadline for filing taxes does fall in the middle of a month.

Maybe we SHOULD be nervous, hmmmm?

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