When I was in high school, it was expected that students read four Shakespearean plays, with one featured each year. The four were Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. I had the same teacher for English and Latin II in my sophomore year. While I wasn’t particularly fond of this particular teacher, she showed a bias toward her Latin students, which helped me. We read the story of Julius Caesar in Latin while reading the Shakespearean play in English. She pointed out the differences between the historical record and the play. Two famous lines from the play do not appear in the historical record.

In Shakespeare’s play, a soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March,” which Caesar dismisses. I probably would have done the same, and I was pleased to learn that there is no particular evidence that the soothsayer existed. It made a good character for the play and allowed Shakespeare to use the dramatic convention of foreshadowing, a point made in English class as we studied the play. In Latin Class, we learned that Caesar died on the Ides of March in 44 BC. In the ancient Roman calendar, the Ides was the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March in 44 BC marked a turning point in Roman History. It was the end of the Roman Republic and the dawn of the Roman Empire. We learned that the difference between a Republic and an Empire is significant. A Republic has a participatory government, while an Empire’s citizens don’t have a say in the decisions and policies of the government. That portrayal isn’t entirely accurate, as Caesar ruled as a dictator without the consent of the people, which was part of the reason for his assassination. The distinction was made at a high school level, and I’m sure I didn’t understand or appreciate the difference as a high school student. Still, it certainly comes to mind in light of the shift away from democratic government in the United States.

The other famous line in the play that is not a part of the Latin history is the last words Caesar utters in the play, “Et tu Brute?” In the play, Caesar’s shock at the betrayal of his friend Brutus, who was among the assassins, gives his life a dramatic and emotional ending. It is possible that Caesar’s last words were similar. The ancient record does not record a Latin response, but a Greek source reports Caesar’s last words as "Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon," which translates to "What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!" The Greek source wasn’t cited in my high school Latin class, only that the play by Shakespeare wasn’t the same as the Latin version of the story in our Latin II textbook.

I’m sure that the assassination was not a pleasant event for Caesar. There were as many as 60 conspirators. Caesar was stabbed a reported 23 times by daggers. Whatever emotional pain he experienced at seeing friends among the conspirators might have quickly been displaced by the physical pain of daggers penetrating his chest and stomach. Likely, the death wasn’t accomplished in an instant. After a major artery was severed and blood began to be pumped into his chest cavity, he had four to six minutes of consciousness before his brain began to shut down for lack of oxygen. That is enough time to experience a great deal of physical pain.

It was a long time ago, however. Even my sophomore year of high school, when two of my classes studied the event, was long ago.

For forty-four years, the phrase, “Beware the Ides of March,” has not been a reference to the collapse of the Roman republic, but rather to a family event. Our son, Isaac, was born on the Ides of March, and since his birth, every Ides of March has been an occasion for celebration. For us, there is nothing to fear about the day. From the moment I saw him take his first breath and shortly afterward issue forth his first cry, the Ides of March transformed my identity. Every year, being a father was a source of great joy. The miracle of his birth and his ongoing life has made the Ides of March a time of turning for me. And now, forty-four years later, I am a grandfather, a role I enjoy immensely.

Like other families, we have our traditions. Our son’s birthday celebration requires a plain angel food cake served whole. He enjoys tearing off bites of the cake without slicing it, and now that he is a father, his children expect us to provide the cake, and they expect their dad to tear into it. They know they will receive a slice after he has gotten a chunk of the cake. This year, we’re saving the angel food cake for tomorrow, as his wife will be working, and we will celebrate with the whole family on Sunday evening. The children will be happy to help decorate cupcakes and appreciate the treat of cake two days in a row, something that doesn’t happen often in their family.

We also have a tradition of going around the table with each person sharing something for which they are grateful about the one whose birthday we celebrate. Since we had three family birthdays in February, we’re practiced, and the children remember the tradition. My job will be to contain my emotions just a bit. I’m so very proud of our son and of all he has accomplished. There is far more that I could say than is appropriate for a family dinner. The occasion is not about me and my emotions, so I must limit my words.

That is good because no words can describe the incredible gift of a son who has graced our lives with so much meaning and wonderful experience. The Ides of March are a day of blessings for our family.