Tomorrow is March 15th, The Ides of March, and therefore the two thousand sixtieth anniversary of the murder of Julius Caesar [leaving to one side the irritating complexities of the Julian calendar], who bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus [as Shakespeare tells us.] I suppose the appropriate celebration is to have a Caesar salad.
Anyone for a stroll down by the Forum?
I'll just have a martinus. Or maybe a couple martini.
ReplyDeleteI offer this comment, not only because I am a pedant (though I am one), but because many people who have not thought about this are delighted when they learn it:
ReplyDeleteTomorrow will be the 2,059th anniversary of the murder of Julius Caesar, not the 2,060th. Why, you ask? Because there was no year zero. Caesar was murdered on March 15, 44 BCE. The 43rd anniversary of that murder was in 1 BCE. The 44th anniversary was in 1 CE. It is now 2,015 years later than 1 CE, so 44+2015=2059.
I gave the same bad news to colleagues who thought they were celebrating the 2,400th anniversary of Aristotle's birth this year.
To avoid this problem, astronomers use a year in which 1 BCE is year 0, 2 BCE is year -1, and so forth.
sigh. You are of course quite correct. Thank you for keeping me honest.
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