Beware the Ides of March. But Why?

7Critter

Paranormal Trooper
Staff
Joined
Jul 29, 2015
Messages
52,070
Reaction score
47,732
Points
203
Location
Virginia, USA
With 15 March coming up, thought you might like some history.
For example, did you know that there was an ides for every month ?

Roman-Ides-coin.jpg


Beware the Ides of March, or at least, be aware of when “the Ides” even takes place (March 15). The word “Ides” is derived from the Latin word “idus,” which refers to the middle day of any month in the ancient Roman calendar. The Ides are specifically the fifteenth day of the months of March, May, July, or October, and the thirteenth day of the remaining months. The Ides were the designated days for settling debt each month in the Roman empire and generally included the seven days preceding the Ides for this purpose. No doubt debtors who could not pay their debts considered the Ides to be unlucky days as they were typically thrown into prison or forced into slavery.

More:

 
  • Like
Reactions: Selectric and Debi
This was long before Pope Greg 14th changed the calendar to use the Mayan idea of leap year to better keep the days of the year in synch and remove the need to change the calendar every 10 years. One thing the Romans were not good at was math, and another was astronomy. I suspect they rarely looked up. And the months were renamed as well, I think, since october is now the 10th month instead of the 8th, etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Selectric
This was long before Pope Greg 14th changed the calendar to use the Mayan idea of leap year to better keep the days of the year in synch and remove the need to change the calendar every 10 years. One thing the Romans were not good at was math, and another was astronomy. I suspect they rarely looked up. And the months were renamed as well, I think, since october is now the 10th month instead of the 8th, etc.
Odd since they were prolific builders.