Beware the Ides of March

Ever since poor old Julius Caesar bit the dust on March 15, 44 B.C., the ides have gotten a bad name. A sense of impending doom or dire predictions seems to hover over a perfectly innocent day. The soothsayer who told Julius to "beward the ides of March" probably knew that March 15 wasn't going to be a very good day for the dictator, but did he have to consign it to ignomy.

No one says bad things about the ides of any other month. In fact, until I began doing some research on the ides of March, I had no idea that there were ides in other months. The ides of May, July and October are also on the 15th. In the other months, however, they are on the 13th. If I wanted to spend more time on this interesting subject, I could probably come up with a reason to malign every other ides, but the ones that fall on Friday the 13th have enough trouble already.

All of this goes back to the Roman calendar. It was centered around not only the ides, but also the kalends (1st day of the month) and the nones (7th day in March, May, July and October and 5th day in all other months).

So brush up on your Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) or your study of Roman history, but I am pretty sure there is no reason for you to beware the ides of March or May or July or October.