Beware of the ides of March

 

You don’t have to be a history buff to know that the ides of March was not a good day for Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC by a group of senators during a Senate session at the Curia of Pompey, located within Rome's Theatre of Pompey. The conspirators, numbering between 60 and 70 individuals and led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, stabbed Caesar approximately 23 times. They justified the act as a preemptive defense of the Roman Republic, asserting that Caesar's accumulation of lifelong political authority—including his perpetual dictatorship and other honors—threatened republican traditions.

The assassination failed to achieve its immediate objective of restoring the Republic's institutions. Instead, it precipitated Caesar's posthumous deification, triggered the Liberators' Civil War (43–42 BC) between his supporters and the conspirators, and contributed to the collapse of the Republic. These events ultimately culminated in the rise of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar, marking the beginning of the Principate era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Julius_Caesar

You may have heard the phrase “beware the Ides of March,” but what is an Ides and what’s there to fear?

The Ides is actually a day that comes about every month, not just in March—according to the ancient Roman calendar, at least. The Romans tracked time much differently than we do now, with months divided into groupings of days counted before certain named days: the Kalends at the beginning of the month, the Ides at the middle, and the Nones between them. In a 31-day month such as March, the Kalends was day 1, with days 2–6 being counted as simply “before the Nones.” The Nones fell on day 7, with days 8–14 “before the Ides” and the 15th as the Ides. Afterward the days were counted as “before the Kalends” of the next month. In shorter months these days were shifted accordingly.

You have probably heard of the Ides of March, however, because it is the day Roman statesman Julius Caesar was assassinated. The immortal words “Beware the Ides of March” are uttered in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to the leader by a fortune-teller. Other bad things have happened on March 15, of course, but there’s probably no reason to beware March’s Ides more than the Ides of any other month. Having said that, though, there ARE people who are more cautious on March 15 than they would be otherwise, just as there are people who are more cautious on Friday the 13^th.

 

I’m not one of them.

In 2025, the only month that has a Friday the 13^th is in June. 2024 had two months that had the date, and 2023 also had two months with the date. 2026 will have three.

https://days.to/when-is/friday-the-13th/2025

 On our honeymoon, our car was hit by the deer on Friday the 13^th. Shortly after we settled into our first apartment, we acquired a black car, and we lived a short distance form Highway 13in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

Although I buy a Fantasy 5 ticket 6 days o week, and the Pick 3 times a week, I rarely buy a Powerball ticket unless the jackpot gets to over $500 million, which is a rare occurrence. The odds of winning the jackpot are roughly 1 in 300,000,000, which is why I play infrequently.

Tomorrow night’s jackpot is $378 million. Since it’s the ides of March, it’s probably a good time to buy a ticket.