Tuesday, March 09, 2010

More than meets the Ides: How many named days are there in the Roman calendar

Bust of Gaius Julius Caesar in the National Ar...Image via Wikipedia
I'm doing business travel this week, so I'm using that as a flimsy excuse to invoke some Shakespeare-inspired trivia from my past writing life:
This week marks the day that Shakespearean scholars, practitioners of precognition, and ancient-Republic-abolishing Roman dictators fear and revere with equal abandon: The Ides of March. On March 15 in 44 B.C., conspirators stabbed Julius Caesar to death on the floor of the Roman Senate. ...

The Ides did arguably gain their contemporary notoriety due to [Shakespeare], who included the famous line "Beware the Ides of March" in his play Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, line 33. ... And by doing so, The Bard ensured that the Ides of March would become one of the most literarily notorious dates in history — even if most folks who observe the Ides don't know that the Romans recognized Ides in months besides March or that Ides were one of three categories of days observed in the ancient Roman calendar.

BESIDES THE IDES, WHAT WERE THE OTHER TWO SPECIFICALLY NAMED DAYS IN THE ROMAN CALENDAR?
Get the answer here.