Rare Antiquities & Ancient Artifacts

The Ides of March

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The Ides of March is a day on the old Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. The earliest Roman calendar, which consisted of ten months beginning with Martius (March), was believed to have been created by King Romulus around 753 B.C. At that time, dates were expressed in relation to the lunar phase of the month using three markers: Kalends (Kal), Nones (Non) and Ides (Id). The first phase of the moon, the new moon, was denoted by Kalends and signified the first day of the month; the first quarter moon fell on either the fifth or seventh day of the month and was referred to as Nones; the full moon fell on either the 13th or 15th day of the month and was referred to as Ides. The ides of March—March 15—initially marked the first full moon of a new year.

In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar by adding ten days to the 355-day year, instituting January 1 as the first day of the new year (beginning in 45 B.C.) and introducing a leap year every four years.

The Ides of each month were sacred to Jupiter, the Romans’ supreme deity. The day was marked by several and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts.

Bust of Julius Caesar

In 44 BC, it became infamous as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the main events that marked the transition from the Roman Republic, ruled by two elected consuls, to the Roman Empire, ruled by dictators.

  Bust of Brutus

Concerned with Caesar’s increasing power and monarchical leanings, Caesar was stabbed 23 times resulting in his death at a meeting of the Roman Senate. Over 50 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were involved. According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, “The Ides of March are come”, implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”  This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare‘s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer  to “beware the Ides of March.”

Bust of Octavian/Augustus

Caesar’s death was a closing event in the crisis of the Roman Republic, and triggered the civil war among Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus, that would result in the rise to sole power of his adopted heir Octavian (later known as Augustus). This began the era of the Roman Empire.

Ides of March Denarius

Struck by Brutus to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar in 42BC