What Are The Ides of March?

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - "Beware the Ides of March."

People remember the line spoken in the play "Julius Caesar" by the British bard William Shakespeare. But what is the Ides of March?

According to National Geographic, March 15, 44 B.C. is the date that Roman leader Julius Caesar found an untimely end to both his life and power thanks to a group of prominent Romans .

Wikipedia states that the Ides of March is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term "ides" was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July and October, and the Ides of March was thought to be "a festive day dedicated to the god Mars ."

Greek historian Plutarch, who later became a Roman citizen, records that Caesar had been warned by a seer to be careful against great peril on the Ides of March. He had been on his way to a theater in Pompey where he saw the seer and joked that the day had come.

"Ay, they have come, but they are not gone," the seer replied in the line dramatized in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caeser."

According to National Geographic, Caesar had accepted the office of "dictator for life" in February 44 B.C. The office of dictator had only meant to be a special temporary office for use during times of extreme civil unrest .

Caesar had been to leave Rome on March 18 for a military campaign in Parthia, an area around modern-day Iraq, Georgetown University assistant professor of classics Charles McNelis told National Geographic. The conspirators, who called themselves "the liberators," started plotting and a group of Roman senators chose March 15 as their date for action.

Caesar would not leave the Pompey theater alive.

Wikipedia states that the Ides of March is celebrated every year by the Rome Hash House Harriers with a toga run in Rome, near where Caesar was killed. Hash House Harriers is an international group of running, social and drinking clubs.

According to AbsoluteAstronomy.com, there have been numerous cultural references to Ides of March. Among them:
• A 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch titled "Julius Caesar On an Aldis Lamp" had the seer warning Caesar in Morse code.
• Lisa Simpson warns her father Homer to "beware the Ideas of March" in the popular cartoon series Simpsons episode "Homer the Great."
• George McFly, Marty McFly's father, was shot down by Biff Tannen in the alternate timeline in the movie Back to the Future, Part II .