Showing posts with label Julius Caesar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Julius Caesar. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2013

Being Aware Of The Ides Of March

A Question To Consider:
“Beware The Ides of March?” 

Today’s the day: March 15. 
Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar made it famous in our “modern” age – the soothsayer cautioning the great Roman emperor against what turned out to be the day his opponents planned and did assassinate him. 

And the play’s historically accurate in that regard.

But do you know what the “Ides” are? 

Turns out there are “Ides” each of month. The Romans organized their calendar around three days of each month, each of which served as a reference point for counting (in Roman numerals – think about it) the other days. 

The “named” days were:
  • Kalends (1st day of the month)
  • Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
  • Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months) 
The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or Ides. And the backwards counting included the named day. 

No wonder the Roman Empire eventually declined and fell.

One more factoid: If you lived in ancient Rome (c. 220 – 153 BCE) you'd have been aware that March’s Ides marked the beginning of the consular year, since the two annually elected Roman consuls took office on the Ides. By Julius Caesar’s time the consuls took over on the Kalends of January which we now call New Year’s Day.

So “Beware?” Well, as co-creator of the Best Year Ever! Program with my buddy Eric Taylor, I’m fond of pointing out –
 
A New Year can begin any time. And it pays to Be Aware – not just “Beware” -- of the opportunities to rethink and begin anew those behaviors you’d like to “resolve” to change or improve.

So today’s a particularly significant and good a day to do so.

Happy New Year! Friends … Romans …Countrymen. 

If these Catalyst Collection blog posts and TGIM tidbits awaken you to new or enlightening experience … if even one helps you see what might otherwise go unnoticed in your day … cool. 

If just one post suggests a change in your routine that stimulates a different point of view with the potential to lead to breakthrough thinking … excellent.

As the Shakespearean version goes, after Caesar hears the prophecy he responds:

Caesar: The Ides of March are come.
Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar; but not gone.

I agree:
 
How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er,
In states unborn, and accents yet unknown! 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
 

P.S. In Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224, Shakespeare has Brutus make this Catalyst-Collection-worthy observation:

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.