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Idus Martiae

The most famous ides is that of the month of March (which incidentally is my birthmonth). By the ides of that month, I should have been able to 1) mark all student essays, 2) give exams, 3)finish three scientific papers etc....arrgh.

Ides is nothing but a Roman way to divide the month. We still divide the month when we get our measly Salarium!

My workload isn't the reason why the ides is famous but because of the soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar "beware of the ides of March". Nonetheless Caesar appeared before the Senate and the Senators (who called themselves Liberatores) assasinated Caesar using daggers. Caesar got 23 stab wounds.

Of course it was in the Roman Senate where the crime was committed. But in our Senate, the Senators have long stopped wearing togas. Thus they have no place to hide their daggers but they can still cast dagger eyes.

The Senators justified their actions as a tyrranicide. The tyrant lies bloodied on the Theatre's portico.

Mark Antony's "Friends" speech has become an icon of rhetoric. While the first line ("Friends, Romans, Countrymen,Lend me your ears!) has been made into a cliche, the third and fourth lines are so apt this time as we approach the ides of March 2008.

"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones"
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