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the Ides of March
"Soothsayer: Caesar!
Caesar: Ha! Who calls?
Casca: Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again!
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak. Caesar is turned to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the Ides of March."
~ Julius Caesar Act I, Scene II, William Shakespeare (1599)
So sayeth the soothsayer: Beware the Ides of March! Indeed, March has taken on an air of significance—for better or worse—in recent times. Whether literally or figuratively, gird yourself in tartan and stand firm against any calendrical unease!
The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to the 15th of March. It was marked by several religious observances and the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
In 2012, a fragment of bronze dating to c. 200 AD was discovered and identified as part of Roman statue believed to be the earliest depiction of tartan. The fragment was part of a statue depicted the Roman Emperor Caracalla, known as the conqueror of the Caledonians. It stood on top of a giant triumphal arch in the ancient Moroccan city of Volubilis, in the southwest corner of the Roman Empire, 1,500 miles from Scotland and showed a captive Caledonian warrior wearing tartan trews.
The unique dress of the Caledonians was remarked on even during this times:
“The way they (the Celts) dress is astonishing: they wear brightly-coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer. These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the separate checks close together and in various colours.”
~ Diodorus Siculus, Greek Historian, 100 BCE
For more on this interesting artifact, the Roman invasion of Scotland, and speculation about the captive Caledonian's likely end, click the tartan fragment.