On the Ides of March (or March 15), 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated, at the foot of a statue of Pompey where the Senate was meeting. Because of the assassination of Julius Caesar and the soothsayer's exchange about it with Julius Caesar, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar tragedy, the Ides of March now signifies a fateful day. Before the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Ides of March was simply a division of the calendar based on...