On March 15, 44 BCE, a guy named Julius Caesar was assassinated by way of stabbing. As far as political assassinations go this was a pretty big deal, since Caesar’s death heralded the end of the Roman Republic and slowly ushered in the beginnings of the Roman Empire.
A few hundred years after Caesar’s death another guy named William Shakespeare wrote a little play about him, aptly named Julius Caesar (Shakespeare had a way with titles), in which a soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March.” Not only did good ol’ Shakespeare’s words stick, but they also branded the phrase and the date with a pretty dire connotation.
Historically however, the Ides were a day of celebration: one of three ‘landmark’ days — the others being the Nones and the Kalends — present in each month of the ancient Roman calendar. Following lunar phases, the Ides referred to the first full moon of any particular month, which usually fell on either the thirteenth or fifteenth day. Interestingly, in the years before 45 BCE, which was when Caesar instigated some pretty big changes to the calendar (and was one of the potential reasons why he got murdered), the Ides of March marked the Roman New Year. While the introduction of the Julian calendar changed when the new year would take place, the assassination of Caesar did not change how people celebrated the Ides as it continued to be an auspicious day of ritual and enjoyment.
The Ides of each month were sacred to Jupiter or Jove, the chief deity in the Roman pantheon. A key ritual in celebrating the Ides was the sacrifice of the ovis Idulis, or the ‘Ides sheep’. This involved the Flamen Dialis, Jupiter’s high priest, leading the sheep in procession down the Via Sacra, the main street of ancient Rome, to the citadel on Capitoline Hill where it was sacrificed.
In addition to the monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also associated with the festival of Anna Perenna, a goddess who was considered to be the embodiment of the cycle of the year. According to the Roman poet Ovid, the festival was celebrated mainly amongst commoners, who would gather at the Campus Martius, a large field outside the walls of Rome, to lay about on the grass, pitch tents out of branches and togas, and spend the day drinking, dancing and singing. They would only return to the city late at night and would pray to Anna Perenna to let them live for as many years as the number of cups of wine they had drunk. Roman provincial Macrobius also records that offerings were made to the goddess to ensure that the “circle of the year may be completed happily”.
In the late Roman Imperial period, the March Ides also marked the first day of a week-long festival celebrating the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele and her son and consort Attis, on which Attis was born and found by Cybele in the reeds of the Phrygian river Gallus. The celebrations turned into solemn commemorations on March 22, the day of Attis’ death under a pine tree where a college of priests, the dendrophoroi or tree bearers, cut down a tree, hung a picture of Attis from it and carried it to the temple of Cybele while lamenting. Following a three-day mourning period, the rebirth of Attis was celebrated on March 25, the day of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere as per the Julian calendar.
Byzantine administrator and antiquarian writer Joannes Lydus also claims that the Mamuralia was held on the Ides of March, though other sources place it on March 14. Sharing similarities to ancient Greek pharmakos rituals and scapegoating ceremonies, this particular observance involved leading an old man dressed in animal skins down the streets of Rome while beating with sticks, and eventually driving him away from the city. As this is technically a new year ceremony, it is thought that the ritual symbolised the transition from an old year to the new.
While the Ides of March will forever be remembered as the date of Caesar’s assassination, there is a lot more history to the day than some important guy’s death. Maybe watch your back on March 15, but maybe also make some celebratory plans. It’s what the Romans would’ve wanted.
