In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated, in 44 BC, the story of which was famously dramatised in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. The term has come to be used as a metaphor for impending doom.

Etymology

The term idūs (ides) is thought to have originally been the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspicious day in their calendar (see Roman_calendar#Months). The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month). The word is probably of non-Indoeuropean origin.

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Main: Assassination of Julius Caesar Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC, after declaring himself dictator for life of Rome. According to a near-contemporary biographer, Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March. A certain soothsayer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "The Ides of March has come," and the seer said to him softly: "Aye, Caesar, but not gone."

As the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called themselves the Liberatores ("Liberators"); they justified their action on the grounds that they committed tyrannicide and were preserving the Republic from Caesar's alleged monarchical ambitions.

In Music

• Thee Mighty Caesars, a garage/punk group fronted by Billy Childish, named an LP "Beware the Ides of March" released in 1985.
• British heavy metal band Iron Maiden opened their second album (Killers) with an instrumental entitled "The Ides of March." The song was also covered by Swedish death metal band Arch Enemy in their album "Black Earth."
• In 1970, the American band The Ides of March had a number 2 hit on the Billboard charts with the song "Vehicle."
• In 2005, the Canadian band Silverstein released a song called "Ides of March" on the album "Discovering the Waterfront".
• In 1994, the American band Codeine released the song "Ides" on the album "The White Birch". A stripped down version of the song was released in March 1993 on a 7 inch single released by Simple Machines as part of their "Working Holiday" series of singles.
• The second track of 1972's Matching Mole's Little Red Record is named "Marchides".
• "Ides of March" is a song recorded by Guns N' Roses during their Chinese Democracy sessions
• Blues Traveler sings "one of these ides he's gonna break free" in the song "Regarding Steven".
• Death in June frontman Douglas Pearce sings the lyric "It's the Ides of March you ignore" on the title track of their "The Rule of Thirds" album.
• The song "Lenders in the Temple", by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, contains the lyric, "Watch your back, the ides of march. Cut your hair like Joan of Arc. Diguise your will, they'll find you out and when they do: watch your back"
• UK Hardcore band On Thin Ice have a song entitled "The Ides Of March"
• The song "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" by Progressive group The Mars Volta contains the line "Theses ides of march are they so make believe?"