Friends, Romans, Morseites lend me your ears
The Ides of March is the day on the Roman calendar that lands on the 15th of March. The name being derived from the Latin word Iduare, meaning to divide. On the Roman calendar the months were divided according to the lunar cycle and were formatted into three groups of days. The Ides of March corresponded with the full moon phase and served as the division point for the middle of the month. The Romans revered Jupiter (the god of the sky) as their chief deity and they would honour him during the full moon phase by hosting feasts and making sacrifices. Another interesting tidbit is on the ancient roman calendar, the new year took place in the month of March, with the Ides marking the first full moon of the new year. In addition to being a day in which to revere Jupiter, it was also a day in which it was popular to collect debts. While the Ides of March may have been a popular day to collect debts and host feasts in honour of their chief deity, it is more commonly associated with an event that would be the catalyst for the rise of the Roman Empire. It would also become synonymous with misfortune and doom. This stems from the day’s association with the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, aka Julius Caesar, which took place on the aforementioned date in 44 BCE. This ideal would later be dramatized and further ingrained in history with the classic Shakespearian play, Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of Roman senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus who wished to save the waning Roman Republic and halt the ever-increasing dictatorial rule of Caesar. In total about sixty co-conspirators would fatally stab Cesar to death in the Roman Senate. While they may have intended for this action to save the republic it would have the exact opposite effect. Caesar's assassination would spark a civil war in which would see his great-nephew and adopted son, Octavian be victorious over his murders and in turn spark the rise of the great Roman Empire. He would avenge his great uncle via waging five civil wars (Mutina, Philippi, Persuia, Sicily, and Actium), including one against Brutus and Cassius, the leaders of the plot against Julius Caesar (Phillippi). Another example of his revenge campaign was that of sacrificing three hundred prisoners of war from the Perusine War on an alter dedicated to Julius Cesar on the Ides of March. Revenge was not his only motivation for waging these wars, it also helped to maintain the validity of his enactments. Eventually, Octavian would become the first Roman Emperor, taking the name Caesar Augustus and he would rule as sole ruler of Rome for forty years. Ostberg, R.. "Ides of March." Encyclopedia Britannica, February 16, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ides-of-March. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html
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