Why do we call it 'ides of March'?

Long before horror author Stephen King was on bestseller lists, Shakespeare was making the 15th of March sound scary in his play Julius Caesar. In Act 1, the soothsayer Artemidorus warns Caesar to “beware the ides of March” shortly before his assassination on that fated day. Were the ides to blame for Caesar’s death? Should we also be wary of these days?

The answer is no, as ides is just an ancient Roman term for the day that falls in the middle of a month. It refers to the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of other months. The Roman calendar was a lunar one, and the dates weren’t based around the concept of a week, but instead around the phases of the moon. It’s also important to note the Romans didn’t number the days of the months sequentially; their day planners (if they existed) were based around three key moments: kalends (the first of the month), nones (the ninth day before the ides), and ides (the aforementioned 13th or 15th). We get the word calendar from the Latin kalends. 

Here’s how this system worked in practice, using March as an example. What we call March 1 was the kalends of March. March 2 through March 6 were called “X days before the nones of March,” March 7 translated to the “nones of March,” March 8 through March 14 were “X days before the ides of March,” and March 15 was the “ides of March.” The 16th through the last day of the month were “X days before the kalends of April.”

While the phrase “ides of March” may be famous due to its appearance in Shakespeare, at the end of the day it’s just another day. We hope you take solace in knowing there’s nothing to beware.