Ides of March & Obelisks
Today is Lupercalia , an ancient Roman religious holiday. It is known in modern times as the Ides of March . Julius Caesar would not see the day through to its end on one memorable Ides of March, but he had been warned. Of course, the Ides of March (literally in Latin, Idus Martias ) is the name of the date 15 March in the Roman calendar. Shakespeare put the infamous warning in prose, with which most of us are familiar. Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear. Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March. Caesar: What man is that? Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19 The press was the crowd , and the man who would be king had cause for concern from that press . The time came. Caesar was assassinated. Brutus, Cassius and their friends stabbed him to death (most accounts record 23 wounds, although Shakespeare's play ...