Beware the Ides of March
March 15, 44 B.C.
Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Brutus. According to the historian Plutarch, a fortune teller had warned Caesar, “beware the Ides of March.” This event was immortalized in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.
The word Ides is from Latin, meaning to divide, and is the 15th day of March, May, July, October, and the 13th day of the other months in the ancient Roman calendar. At one time, the Ides of March marked the new year.