Untitled Document

15 March 2006

Ides of March

The wind is roaring outside, the Lion contesting with the Lamb, and kicking his butt.

Wispy clouds are scudding across the face of the full moon that gleams with the reflected light of the coming dawn. Beware the Ides of March.

The Latin word “Ides” means “to divide.” Each month of the year had a day in the middle designated as the Ides. In March, May, July and October, the "ides" fall on the 15th day. In every other month, the "ides" fell on the 13th.

The "ides" were originally meant to mark the full moon, but since the solar calendar months and lunar months were of different lengths, the "ides" quickly lost their original intent and purpose.

Not this morning. The moon is as full as a boil and the wind seems to wish to lance it.

Great Caesar went to the Senate on this day in the year 44 BC, 2,050 years ago today. He had been warned about the significance of the day by soothsayers, but there were matters of state to attend to, and Julius was a man of fierce determination.

He had placed his image on the coin of the realm, where previously only the Gods had been allowed. The conspirators viewed themselves as the protectors of the people, the embodiment of the Senate and the Roman People, SPQR. They called themselves the Liberators. That is a term that is purely subjective, and depends entirely on your point of view.

One man's hero is another man's terrorist, after all.

Caesar was to depart Rome on the 18th of March for a military campaign in Parthia, the Mesopotamian land we know today as Iraq.
I don't know if anything would have been different if Caesar had conquered the land between the rivers, or if his legacy would have lingered in some fashion down the millennia.

Empires are tricky things, and many have passed away since Caesar's time. What he put in motion still has an effect on the affairs of men below the swelling moon.

The Liberators were led by Cassius, and assisted by Caesar's protégé Brutus. Both those names live today, and both had sharp daggers that plunged into the body of Caesar as he stood upon the Rostrum in Pompey's Theater. He staggered and fell, expiring there at the foot of the enormous statue of the great general. They stabbed him repeatedly, and they all took their turn to ensure that the act was well and truly shared.

The murder of the Tyrant, or the Hero, did not bring power back to the Senate or the Roman People.

Caesar's power lived through his heir Octavian, the first of the long line, the ides of Roman history. Before him was the Republic and the Senate, and after him was the Empire and the Emperors. He named himself Imperator Caesar Augustus. He remembered the Ides of March as a practical lesson in politics.

I am going downtown today, into the imperial city on the other side of the river. I intend to be circumspect when I am on the District, and I am going nowhere near the Senate.