The Ides of March

[EugeneF]

Imagine yourself a tourist in ancient Rome and you wanted to buy 15 postcards. (The ones using mosaics were impressive but the postage was exorbitant). Of course, you would tell the shopkeeper, I'd like Ides, please. If he were obliging, he would lift his tunic. Otherwise, he would think you a babbling idiot.

You see, Ides does not mean 15. It rather refers to the full moon by which the old Roman calendar divided the month. The similarity between month and moon is not a coincidence.

Ancient Rome was built on seven hills and an absurd lunar calendar. The Roman year had ten months as well another sixty days in winter that didn't count. Be fair: if you were stuck using Roman numerals, you'd resort to any short cut, too. Such a slovenly, lackadaisical calendar might suit a small Tiber village or modern Italy, but not a growing empire. The government decided to organize the dead time into two new months: Ianuarius and Februarius.

That improved the bookkeeping but not the accuracy of the calendar. The Roman year was 355 days. As Rome expanded, it was coming into contact with more sophisticated systems. The Greeks had realized that a sun-based calendar was more accurate. Yet, out of self-reverence, for six centuries Rome adhered to its ridiculous calendar.

But that outdated calendar was just one tradition that Julius Caesar intended to end. While in Alexandria, Caesar was seduced by more than just Cleopatra. The city was the think tank of the ancient world. Greek science and Babylonian mathematics had produced a calendar of unequaled precision. Caesar was so impressed that he decided to impose it on the Roman world. And for some reason, people called it the Julian calendar.

(Alexandria's scientific community also successfully promoted a chronological concept called the "week." The seven-day period once had been dismissed as just another Jewish idiosyncrasy. But when Alexandria adopted the idea, everyone loved it.)

The Julian calendar went into effect on January 1, 45 B.C. If the Roman traditionalists had any objections, they certainly expressed them on March 15, 44 B.C.

Eugene

[earendel]

Imagine yourself a tourist in ancient Rome and you wanted to buy 15 postcards. (The ones using mosaics were impressive but the postage was exorbitant). Of course, you would tell the shopkeeper, I'd like Ides, please. If he were obliging, he would lift his tunic. Otherwise, he would think you a babbling idiot.

You see, Ides does not mean 15. It rather refers to the full moon by which the old Roman calendar divided the month. The similarity between month and moon is not a coincidence.

Ancient Rome was built on seven hills and an absurd lunar calendar. The Roman year had ten months as well another sixty days in winter that didn't count. Be fair: if you were stuck using Roman numerals, you'd resort to any short cut, too. Such a slovenly, lackadaisical calendar might suit a small Tiber village or modern Italy, but not a growing empire. The government decided to organize the dead time into two new months: Ianuarius and Februarius.

That improved the bookkeeping but not the accuracy of the calendar. The Roman year was 355 days. As Rome expanded, it was coming into contact with more sophisticated systems. The Greeks had realized that a sun-based calendar was more accurate. Yet, out of self-reverence, for six centuries Rome adhered to its ridiculous calendar.

But that outdated calendar was just one tradition that Julius Caesar intended to end. While in Alexandria, Caesar was seduced by more than just Cleopatra. The city was the think tank of the ancient world. Greek science and Babylonian mathematics had produced a calendar of unequaled precision. Caesar was so impressed that he decided to impose it on the Roman world. And for some reason, people called it the Julian calendar.

(Alexandria's scientific community also successfully promoted a chronological concept called the "week." The seven-day period once had been dismissed as just another Jewish idiosyncrasy. But when Alexandria adopted the idea, everyone loved it.)

The Julian calendar went into effect on January 1, 45 B.C. If the Roman traditionalists had any objections, they certainly expressed them on March 15, 44 B.C.

Eugene

One of Isaac Asimov's "Tales of the Black Widowers" hinges upon the proper understanding of "ides".

[Bob Juch]

Only in March, May, July and October is the ides the 15th; it's the 13th in the other months.

[TheConfessor]

They also peaked at #2 with their big hit, "Vehicle," in 1970.

[earendel]

Only in March, May, July and October is the ides the 15th; it's the 13th in the other months.

And that was the plot point in the short story.

Spoiler

As I recall the story, a young man came to the Black Widowers because of a tiff with his fiancee over a recent Latin exam. Both of them were students of a classics professor who bought into the Roman system whole hog - using Roman equivalents for all sorts of things. He gave the two students a text to translate and told them not to start before "the ides of April". Both students submitted their translations but the gir's was considered superior. The young man was convinced that the girl had cheated somehow, claiming that he had seen her working on her translation on April 14th, a day before the starting date. The Black Widowers (or rather their butler, Henry), pointed out that "the ides of April" would have been the 13th, not the 15th.

[littlebeast13]

Only in March, May, July and October is the ides the 15th; it's the 13th in the other months.

It should be the 13th every month....

Who do I lobby to get that changed....?

lb13

[Jeemie]

I am so in gratuitious post mode this morning!

[ulysses5019]

I am so in gratuitious post mode this morning!

Which one is you?

[ulysses5019]

I am so in gratuitious post mode this morning!

And which one is David Clayton Thomas? Gratuity is fun.

[Rexer25]

I am so in gratuitious post mode this morning!

Which one is you?

I bet he's the one in the back left.

[Jeemie]

I am so in gratuitious post mode this morning!

Which one is you?

I bet he's the one in the back left.

No, I took the picture.

Here's me loading it onto my computer in my dad's basement.