Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum Here. Thanks to a murder in Ancient Rome and
Speaker 1: a play written by William Shakespeare, people are still proclaiming,
Speaker 1: beware the IDEs of March. This infamous day has become
Speaker 1: synonymous with betrayal, lost loyalty, and unwelcome surprises. So what
Speaker 1: is the IDEs of March? And should it really make
Speaker 1: us wary? Ancient Romans, those clever folks known for aqueducts
Speaker 1: and amphitheaters, also had a hand in developing a predecessor
Speaker 1: to our modern calendar. The name they created for the
Speaker 1: first day of each month, Calends, eventually led to the
Speaker 1: modern word calendar. They also determined that one day each
Speaker 1: month would be known as IDEs, a day that often
Speaker 1: corresponded with religious observances. According to their reckoning, the IDEs
Speaker 1: fell on the thirteenth day of you each month, with
Speaker 1: the exceptions of March, May, July, and October when the
Speaker 1: iides occurred on the fifteenth. But it was the iides
Speaker 1: of March that became a real stickler. It presented a
Speaker 1: deadline on which citizens were expected to settle all of
Speaker 1: their debts. It became a day of celebration for those
Speaker 1: who received payment, and a day of woe for those
Speaker 1: who paid. For many, it was probably a little both.
Speaker 1: The concept of IDEs was closely tied to the way
Speaker 1: people of ancient Rome tracked the passage of time. The
Speaker 1: Latin route of eyd means to divide, and in keeping
Speaker 1: with the sentiment, the iides took place about midway through
Speaker 1: each month. The iides also corresponded with the rise of
Speaker 1: the full moon. This worked well for as long as
Speaker 1: the lunar cycle and the calendar months matched up as expected. Eventually, however,
Speaker 1: a mismatch between the two was apparent. A solution was
Speaker 1: presented in about forty five BCE, when days were added
Speaker 1: or removed so that the calendar would stay in sync
Speaker 1: with astronomical seasons such as solstices and equinoxes. The resulting
Speaker 1: Julian calendar was based on Earth's revolutions around the Sun.
Speaker 1: It was a three hundred and sixty five day year
Speaker 1: divided into twelve months, with an additional day added every
Speaker 1: four years to resink the calendar, an event now known
Speaker 1: as a leak year. The Julian calendar was named posthumously
Speaker 1: for the military general and politician Julius Caesar, who had
Speaker 1: declared himself ruler of the Roman Republic back in forty
Speaker 1: nine BCE. For the article this episode is based on
Speaker 1: How Stuffworks. Spoke by email, Kelly Ann Diamond, PhD, an
Speaker 1: assistant teaching professor at Villanova University. She said, what is
Speaker 1: interesting is that the change came about after Caesar had
Speaker 1: spent some time in Egypt, specifically in the city of Alexandria.
Speaker 1: The Egyptians had developed previously a calendar of three hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty five days. However, they did not add that
Speaker 1: extra day, so the Egyptian calendar drifted one day every
Speaker 1: four years. Through ancient writings, including those of the philosopher Plutarch,
Speaker 1: it was recorded that Caesar sought help from expert mathematicians,
Speaker 1: including in Alexandria, and adjusting the calendar, and Diamond said
Speaker 1: this is important to note because ancient Egypt does not
Speaker 1: always receive the credit it deserves as part of the
Speaker 1: foundation of Western culture. Usually the story begins and ends
Speaker 1: with Julius Caesar and relegated to the footnotes is the
Speaker 1: fact that the Egyptians were technologically savvy and passed on
Speaker 1: their wisdom to the Roman world. For a time, this
Speaker 1: Julian calendar seemed to propose an ideal solution, until people
Speaker 1: realized that an extra day every four years was too many,
Speaker 1: and a modified Gregorian calendar was developed in fifteen eighty two.
Speaker 1: The Gregorian calendar is now used as the official civilian
Speaker 1: time tracker in most parts of the world. Even so,
Speaker 1: the IDEs of March from the Julian calendar is still
Speaker 1: part of our collective consciousness, thanks in large part to
Speaker 1: Caesar's untimely debt and the Shakespeare play that immortalized it.
Speaker 1: Okay in forty four BCE, about five years into Julius
Speaker 1: Caesar's rule of Rome, things seemed to be going well.
Speaker 1: He had a number of military victories under his belt
Speaker 1: after taking over parts of what's now Belgium, France, Germany, Spain,
Speaker 1: and Switzerland, and he was generally quite popular among his constituents.
Speaker 1: As Caesar had appointed several political leaders the comprised Rome Senate,
Speaker 1: but tensions were building. Members of the Senate worried that
Speaker 1: Caesar's mounting popularity and his recent self appointment as dictator
Speaker 1: in perpetuity would lead to a disastrous political outcome for Rome.
Speaker 1: Some senators feared Caesar would disband the Senate and rule
Speaker 1: of his own accord without their input. The brewing opposition
Speaker 1: to Caesar's rule came to a head on the IDEs
Speaker 1: of March March fifteenth in forty five for BCE, when
Speaker 1: about forty Roman senators stabbed Caesar to death as the
Speaker 1: group was on its way to a sporting event at
Speaker 1: the Theater of Pompeii in Rome. The conspiracy, led by
Speaker 1: Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, was kept under
Speaker 1: wraps by the dozens of senators involved. Houstuffworks also spoke
Speaker 1: by email with Kate Wiswell, historical hobbyist and author. As
Speaker 1: she said, Julius Caesar managed to anger enough people that
Speaker 1: he was taken out by his own senate for the
Speaker 1: greater good. Sadly, his removal did not usher in the
Speaker 1: revolution people had hoped for, because they fought so much
Speaker 1: about how to replace him that they ended up with
Speaker 1: yet another empirical Caesar just like him. After a period
Speaker 1: of public outrage and a series of civil wars, Caesar's
Speaker 1: nephew Octavian began calling himself Caesar Augustus and claimed rule
Speaker 1: of what would become the Roman Empire, ending ancient Rome's
Speaker 1: brush with the government ruled by representatives of the people.
Speaker 1: But fast forward to the turn of the sixteen hundreds
Speaker 1: ce Throughout the Renaissance there had been a renewed interest
Speaker 1: in cultural touchstones of the past as a way to
Speaker 1: help society move forward. This included an interest in, for example,
Speaker 1: the historical events of ancient Rome. Back in the thirteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: Dante had written Brutus and Cassius into the deepest part
Speaker 1: of the Deepest Circle of Hell in his work Inferno.
Speaker 1: It's no surprise that Shakespeare chose this richly metaphored and
Speaker 1: richly biographed story is the basis of a play. Julius
Speaker 1: Caesar was probably the first play performed upon the grand
Speaker 1: opening of the New Globe Theater in fifteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and it was actually just one of four plays about
Speaker 1: Caesar from that decade that have survived. But the ethical
Speaker 1: questions that Shakespeare's play raises have helped it survive across centuries,
Speaker 1: and with it the line beware the IDEs of March,
Speaker 1: spoken to Caesar by a Susai, predictor of the future,
Speaker 1: whom Caesar promptly ignores, so that's where the phrase comes
Speaker 1: from and why you probably don't need to beware of
Speaker 1: March fifteenth, unless you're getting a little overly ambitious there.
Speaker 1: If so, might want to check that today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article no need to beware the IDEs
Speaker 1: of March actually on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Lareel Dove.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
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