2,000.046 years ago, one of the most notorious political assassinations in world history took place.

Julius Caesar, the dictator for life of the Roman Republic, was killed by a group of senators just before a session of the Senate was to start.

The murder famously took place on the Ides of March.

Learn more about the assassination of Julius Caesar, why it happened, and what exactly is the

Ides of March? on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Before I get into the details about the assassination of Julius Caesar, I'd like to explain a bit

exactly what the Ides of March is and what was so special about it. I've talked before on this

show about the Roman calendar.

The basic calendar that we use, including all the names of the months in English, all come

from Rome.

In particular, the calendar which Julius Caesar established, the Julian calendar, is still pretty much what we use, save for a minor upgrade for leap years every four centuries.

However, within a month, the way the Romans counted days was totally unlike what we do. The idea of a seven-day

week was actually instituted by the Emperor Constantine in 321, about 350 years after

Caesar set up his calendar. The Romans didn't have days of the month. They didn't

refer to something as March 15th for example. What they did was pinned down three days each

month and then referenced every day in the month with respect to those three days.

The three days were the Callans, the Nans, and the Ides.

The Callans were always on the first day of every month.

The Nans fell on the seventh day of the month with 31 days and on the fifth day of the month with

less than 31.

The Ides fell on the 15th day of months with 31 days and on the 13th day of months without 31 days.

Days were referenced by the number of days before one of those three days counting inclusively.

So for example, May 3rd would be five non-s of May.

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