Ides of March

In 44 B.C. the fifteenth day of March would become famous. Julius Caesar was assassinated while in the Curia of Pompey, a meeting place within the larger Theater of Pompey. His manner of death would become one of the most recognized scenes in western literature, due to a work by William Shakespeare. In his play about Julius Caesar, Shakespeare recalls the moment when on his way to the theater Caesar has an exchange with what would be called soothsayer. The exchange involved a few sentences:

Caesar:

Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue shriller than all the music

Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.


Soothsayer:

Beware the ides of March.


Caesar:

What man is that?


Brutus:

A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Bust of Julius Caesar

While the Ides of March is most highly associated with Caesar's assassination, the Ides had been around and part of Roman culture for quite some time. In the original Roman Calendar, March was the first month of the new year, and for that lunar based calendar, the Ides of March referred to the date on which the full moon would appear. Of course, as most know, Caesar would create the Julian calendar, on which the current Gregorian calendar which we use today is based. The Julian calendar would alter the month of March to be the third month of the year, rather than the first. Regardless of the calendar in use, feast days of the original Roman calendar were still recognized. After all, Julius Caesar had only been in power for five years.

Ancient Roman Calendar, prior to Julian reform

If one has ever played the computer video game "Caesar," you would know the importance of ritual festivals to keep the masses in check, and the role played by the temples one needs to construct to honor the Roman gods. Chief of the Roman gods, was Jupiter, and the Ide of each month, was set in the honor of this pagan god. In the Roman calendar, the ides would occur on either the 13th of 15th of the month. It was the middle day of the month, the day of the full moon. But, the Ides of March was also thought to be the Roman festival Annae Festiva Geniale Perannae, which corresponds to the Holi festival celebrated in India as part of their Hindu culture. This Roman festival was for the working class, the plebs, who were the vast majority of the population. The death of Julius Caesar would come to be seen as one of the watershed moments of history. A moment where life would be forever altered, and a new governmental system employed. The moment of course, did not happen with the slaying of the competent but opportunistic Caesar, but had been in the works for about a century.

Modern day Holi Festival, Source:Facebook

The Roman Republic was one of the early great political inventions of modern man with a system of checks and balances to help keep power grabbing in check. But, over the course of much of its time, it was subject to the opportunism of power hungry individuals. Power is said to corrupt, and one only need to go back to ancient Rome to know why. A number of issues led to problems with the Republic, from battles at the edges of its dominion, a developing rich class outside of Rome in the provinces, soil exhaustion, and other factors would play into certain leaders wanting to accumulate power. Tiberius and his brother would see their lives end due to their efforts to reform the Republic and bring about a system more relevant to the masses. Roman rulers before Caesar would accumulate power and override laws.  One law had limited counsels of Rome to a short 18 month term every ten years, but even before Julius Caesar it would be set aside. But, Caesar would take dominance to a new level, and as Brinton et al report "Caesar carried one-man government to a point far beyond that reached by his predecessors in Rome." His system would become known as Caesarism. While this system would maintain the actual institutions of the republic, the abilities and charges of the institutions were neutered. No checks and balances between the assemblies and the executive. No limitations on the posts the head man could hold. He would control the judiciary. Unlike Franklin Roosevelt who tried but failed to pack the Supreme Court, Caesar was able to expand the Senate to accommodate men who supported him. Caesar's power grab and having named himself dictator for life, was too much for some, seeing the glory of the Republic vanish before their eyes, but more likely the fact that through Caesar's accumulation of power, left senators and others of the ruling class marginalized.

Late 18th century painting of the murder of Julius Caesar

But it was not only the soothsayer who had portended a bad event on this day. Nicolaus of Damscus, while not present at the event, would record what he had heard. He noted that Caesar's wife had visions in dreams that his going out that day of 15 March would not bode well. Brutus, who would be one of the main plotters and assailants would chide Caesar for listening to a woman. Caesar would ignore the advice of his wife, the soothsayer, and others, and walk to the session of the Roman senate. There a group of senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Caesar's own brother-in-law Marcus Junius Brutus would lead a group of senators; out would come daggers hidden beneath their cloaks.  Julius Casaer would be stabbed to death. Accounts vary, but it was likely Julius Casaer endeared a total of 23 stab wounds. The Reins of power would fall to Octavian, later to be known as Caesar Augustus, grand nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar. The Roman Republic would end, it would now be the Roman Empire. A new course of world history was set in place on the Ides of March 44 B.C.

Coin bearing image of Caesar

It did not have to be so. But Julius Caesar himself set his ambitions to play when he crossed the Rubicon River five years earlier with a legion from the province he had controlled to the north. There was no going back from that point. Many humans are full of ambition, and cling to power. Think of Vladimir Putin. Caesar was rather vain, he was concerned about his receding hairline and he upset people when he began placing his image on Roman coins. Whether or not he posed bare chested on a horse, like the current friendly leader of the Russia, is left to history.

Roman coin bearing image of Brutus and two daggers, with
Roman abbreviation for Ides of March (EID MAR)

Systems of governance, as showed by the history of Republic of Rome, are susceptible to executive actions always pushing the boundaries, and attempt to weaken the system of checks and balances. Recess appointments, signing statements, executive orders all work to extend the power of the chief executive. Over time they can come to set a new standard of what is acceptable. That new standard may have dire consequences. Julius Caesar did not have to die, if he had listened to his wife he may have lived, and we can only speculate on what history would bring from that point. Julius Caesar was not the first, or the last man,to want to grab power, or the first or last to not listen to his wife.