Id. Mart.
March 15 in Ancient Rome
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Twenty-three wounds on the Ides
politics44 BC
Julian date · ≈ Mar 13 on our calendar
On the Ides of March, Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Cassius and Marcus and Decimus Brutus at a meeting in Pompey’s senate house.
ista quidem vis est!
Why, this is violence!
Julius Caesar · Cicero
Background
By early 44 BC Julius Caesar had won the civil war and been named dictator for life. To many senators who had lost power, his rule looked like monarchy. Suetonius says some sixty men joined the plot, led by Gaius Cassius and by Marcus and Decimus Brutus. They debated striking at the elections or on the Sacred Way, but chose a senate meeting called for the Ides of March in the hall built by Pompey.
Suetonius records a run of warnings per Suetonius, writing over a century later. The soothsayer Spurinna told Caesar to beware a danger that would not pass before the Ides; his wife Calpurnia dreamed that he lay stabbed in her arms. Unwell and uneasy, he nearly stayed home, but Decimus Brutus persuaded him not to disappoint the waiting senators. On the way someone pressed a note about the plot into his hand; he never read it. Passing Spurinna, he joked that the Ides had come. "Come, but not gone," came the reply.
Tillius Cimber seized his toga; Caesar cried "Why, this is violence!" He was stabbed twenty-three times. The famous "You too, my son?" is reported by Suetonius only as something "some say". Three slaves later carried his body home on a litter, one arm hanging down.
Ancient source: Suetonius, Divus Iulius 80–82 · Reference
Sources
Read moreAnna Perenna: a picnic by the Tiber
Anna Perenna: a picnic by the Tiber
Drink a cup for every year
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
On the Ides of March Romans picnicked and drank by the Tiber for Anna Perenna, praying for as many years as cups they drank.
sole tamen vinoque calent annosque precantur / quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt
They pray for as many years as cups, as many as they drink.
Background
The Ides of March were not only a date of murder. For ordinary Romans they were also the feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the turning year whose grove lay near the Tiber, outside the city. Her name seems to echo annus, "year", and perennis, "lasting" modern and ancient guesses.
Ovid paints a lively scene. The people came out and drank there, scattered on the grass, "and every man reclines there with his girl". Some stayed under the open sky, others pitched tents or built leafy huts of branches, or set up reeds and hung their togas over them for shade. Warmed by sun and wine, they prayed for "as many years as cups" they drank. They sang songs learned at the theatre and danced clumsily. Going home, they staggered and the crowd called them "blessed". Ovid even says he once saw a tipsy old woman dragging a tipsy old man per Ovid, who enjoyed a good scene.
Who Anna was, Ovid admits, was disputed, and he gives several stories, including that she was Dido's sister, or an old woman who fed the plebs during their secession. The festival itself, a spring outing for the whole city, is the part we can be sure of.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 3.523–696 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 16°/6°C (61°/43°F) · rain 19% of days
Rome in MarchMarch, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and…
Columella
Signals a storm. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Columella calls March the best time for pruning vines and the first digging of vineyards; spring crops like millet were readied per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Legal and public business resumed in full after winter. At the Liberalia (17 Mar.) many boys put on the plain toga of manhood and were enrolled as adult citizens, with a family procession to the Forum per Ovid, Fasti 3.771–88.
Senate & politics
From c. 222 to 153 BC the consuls entered office on the Ides of March; Livy records it for 217 BC, and the starting year is a modern reconstruction per Livy 22.1.4. From 153 BC they took office on the Kalends of January per Livy, Per. 47. Caesar was killed at a Senate meeting on the Ides of March 44 BC per Suetonius, Velleius.
Military
The month of Mars opened the campaign season. The Salii carried the sacred shields, and the Tubilustrium (23 Mar.) purified the war trumpets per Varro and Ovid.
Festivals & religion
Matronalia (1 Mar.), Liberalia (17 Mar.), when boys often took the man's toga, and the Quinquatrus of Minerva (19–23 Mar.), a holiday for craftsmen, teachers and doctors per Ovid, Fasti 3.
Daily life
March, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and sailing. The Salii, Mars' leaping priests, danced through the city. On the Kalends (Matronalia), married women received gifts and in turn served a meal to the household's enslaved people per Macrobius 1.12.7; Ovid, Fasti 3. Columella treats March as prime time for pruning vines and digging per Columella 11.2.
For soldiers, the campaign season began; for traders, sea routes reopened and grain ships from Egypt and Africa could sail again, easing city food supplies.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 3 · Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12 · Livy 22.1.4 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 47 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 116 (Latin) · Suetonius, Divus Iulius 80–81 (Latin) · Velleius Paterculus 2.56 (Latin)
All days in March →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Cras te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper.
“You say you'll live tomorrow, Postumus, always tomorrow.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.58 · translation ours (literal)
