Beware the Ides of March! For some reason, I have been unable to get this (and the Fool’s Garden song Lemon Tree) out of my head today.

In school some of us preteneded to re-enact Julius Caesar’s assasination, which happened on this day in 44 BC when he was stabbed 23 times to death. Although this day is known today as March 15, the Romans did not number month days sequentially. Instead, they based days of the month on three fixed points on each month: the Nones (5 or 7 depending on month), the Ides (13 or 15), and the Kalends (1), the last of these from which the English word “calender” is derived. They counted backwards from these points, denoting days based on when the next of these fixed points would be. Caesar, having assumed the role of dictator for life, struck fear into many senators at the time. They conspired to assasinate Caesar, suspecting that he wanted to overthrow the Senate. On the Ides of March, the conspirators carried out their plan, stabbing him to death (only one of these wounds were fatal). The conspirators ultimately failed to save the Roman Repulic from tyranny, as a civil war ensued, leaving Augustus as emperor.

As for Lemon Tree by Fool’s Garden, I had fond memories of the song and the CD that it was on in the car as a little kid, but I did not know the song’s name until a few hours before I wrote this. I searched through the CD collection until I found the 12-track disc with that song on the last 4 minutes of the very last track. The song’s lyrics is quite catchy, and they sound all too familiar…