Ides of March

The Ides of March (in Latin, Idus Martii or Idus Martiae) in the Roman calendar corresponded to the 15th day of the month by Martius.

The Ides were days of good omens that took place on the 15th of March, May, July and October, and on the 13th of the rest of the months of the year.

Although March (Martius, month dedicated to the god Mars) was the third month of the Julian calendar, in the oldest Roman calendar it was the first month of the year. The holidays observed by the Romans since the first of the Ides reflect their origin as celebrations of the new year. The Ides of March, in the oldest calendars, would have been the days corresponding to the first full Moon of the new year.

The Ides of March in culture

These Ides of March were the most famous of the Ides because they were marked by various religious observances and because the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC occurred on that date. C., considered a turning point in the history of Ancient Rome, marking the transition from the historical period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.

According to the Greek writer Plutarch, Caesar would have been warned of the danger, but he had dismissed the warning:

What is more extraordinary is that a seer had warned him of the grave danger that threatened him in the March idus, and that day when he went to the Senate, Julius Caesar found the seer and said, "The March idus have already arrived"; to what the seer answered compassionately: "Yes, but they have not yet finished."

Plutarco

Although the Roman calendar was replaced by modern days of the week around the 3rd century, the Ides continued to be used colloquially as a reference for centuries to come. Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar in 1599 cited them when writing the famous phrase:

«Take care of the idus of March!».

Religious observances

The Ides of each month were dedicated to Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans. The Flamen Dialis, high priest of Jupiter, carried the "sheep of the Ides" (ovis Idulius) in procession along the Via Sacra to the Arx, where it was sacrificed.

In addition to this monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March also celebrated the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the year (in Latin, annus), whose festival originally concluded with the ceremonies of the new year. anus. This day was celebrated with enthusiasm by the people with meals in the countryside, drinking and lots of fun. One of the sources of late antiquity also places the Mamuralias on the Ides of March. This celebration, which has aspects of scapegoating or of ancient Greek pharmaco rituals, involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and probably carrying him out of the city. This ritual could have been part of the New Year's festival, representing the expulsion of the old year.

In the late imperial period, the Ides began a "holy week" of festivals of Cibeles and Attis. The Ides were the days of Canna intrat ("The reed enters"), when Attis was born and was exposed (abandoned) while still a suckling child among the reeds of a Phrygian river. Attis was discovered, depending on the version of the myth, by shepherds or by the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the Magna Mater, "Great Mother". A week later, every March 22, the days of the Arbor intrat festival ("The tree enters") the death of Attis is commemorated under a stone pine. A college of priests called the "bearers of the tree", the dendrophores (dendrophoroi) cut down a tree, decorated it and suspended an image of Attis from it, and transported it to the temple of the Magna Mater in the midst of lamentations.

Finally, the day was formalized as part of the official Roman calendar in the time of Claudius. And they made it follow a three-day period of mourning, which would culminate with the rebirth of Attis, on March 25, the date of the equinox. of spring in the Julian calendar.