This next Date You Should Know comes to us from the dying days of the Roman Republic and, as a Classics student, is near and dear to my heart. You’re probably at least vaguely aware of it, given that it is one of the most important days in human history. That date is March 15, 44 BC: the Ides of March.

Now, if the Romans excelled at one thing, it was killing people in brutal and inventive ways. And if they excelled at a second thing, it was killing each other. And if there was a thing they most certainly did not excel at, it was creating a calendar that made sense.

If there is a single episode in Roman history that encapsulates all three of these principles, it’s the Ides of March, a chilling tale of ambition, tyranny, conspiracy and twenty-three stab wounds.

I’ll spare you the bewilderingly convoluted details, but the short version is that March 15 is called the Ides of March because the Romans didn’t count the day of the month directly.

They counted towards the day in the middle of the month (the Ides), the day between the middle and the first day of the month (the Nones) or the day at the start of the next month (the Kalends). In March, the Ides falls on the 15th - it varies between months.

The whole thing is made even worse by the fact that the Romans didn’t have a concept of 0, so the day before the day before, say, the Ides is counted as three days before. And don’t even get my started on Roman numerals.

Yeah. It’s a real mess.

Anyway, back to the matter at the hand.

Et Tu, Brute?

By 44 BC, Julius Caesar was the big man on the Campus Martius (that joke is funny, trust me). He’d conquered Gaul, famously crossed a river, won a war against his political rivals, was carrying on a torrid love affair with the world’s most beautiful woman and was consolidating the powers of the Republic into himself.

One thing led to another and many of Caesar’s Senatorial rivals began forming a conspiracy to ensure that Caesar would be, as they say in Latin, “interfectus est.” It means “killed.” Most Latin verbs do.

Among the conspirators was Marcus Junius Brutus, a close confidant and ally of Caesar.

Caesar was not only Brutus’ father figure, but possibly his actual father. Brutus’s mother, Servilla, was Caesar’s longtime mistress. The timeline doesn’t quite work out, as Caesar was only fifteen when Brutus was born. Still, the possibility adds to the drama of the whole thing.

Then Fall, Caesar.

Entering the Senate house on the Ides of March 44 BC, Caesar found himself surrounded by the conspirators. What followed (twenty-three stab wounds) was a veritable orgy of violence - a decided change from the Roman’s propensity for actual orgies - as recreated in the following incident from World Championship Wrestling involving Sting and the New World Order:

There is disagreement over what exactly Caesar’s last words were. Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar has him utter the famous “Et tu, Brute?” (“Even you, Brutus?”). There’s no historical evidence this is what he actually said, but is consistent with several ancient accounts which also note his disbelief at seeing Brutus among the conspirators.

The Roman historian Suetonius has him exclaiming “Why, this is violence!” It’s not merely a statement of the obvious. Murdering someone - especially a ranking Senator - in the Senate House (technically the Theatre of Pompey, which was a temporary meeting place for the Senate), was an incomprehensible breach of Roman custom, and the Romans loved established customs.

Other historians also suggest that Caesar, in fact, said nothing, either due to attempting to maintain his dignity by dying in silence, or as a result of being stabbed twenty-three times.

The Foundation of the Empire

After the assassination of Caesar, the conspirators jubilantly ran through the streets of Rome, proudly proclaiming that they had killed the tyrant and saved the Republic.

They had not, in fact, saved the Republic.

Caesar’s ally Mark Antony and his nephew - and adopted son - Octavian (the eventual Emperor Augustus) chased down and defeated the various conspirators, before going to war with each other for control of Rome. A decisive naval victory for Octavian led to Antony’s suicide in Egypt and Octavian’s rise to undisputed rule over Rome, whereupon he declared himself Emperor and adopted the regnal name Augustus.

Read More Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_War_of_the_Roman_Republic

Joel Balkovec

Joel Balkovec has an MA in Classics, so he knows a thing or two about history. When he’s not professionally writing at Algonquin, he’s writing family-friendly Fantasy stories at home as J.B. Norman. Visit his website at www.realmgard.com