Is today the Ides of September?

[question everything]

Or does this hold only for March?

[Coexist]

1. Ides: The middle of a month usually the 13th or 15th

http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/glo_glossary_i.htm

[question everything]

5. Thanks. Imagine if the attacks were on 9/13 or 9/15

instead of 9/11.

Would someone have whispered to Bush: Beware the Ides of September? (Would he even understood this?)

[htuttle]

2. Found this:

"Both the first Roman calendar and the Julian calendar (established by J.C. in 45 BCE 709 ab urbe condita) organized its months around three named days that served as reference points from which to count the other days. The first day of the month was Kalends. Nones was the 7th day of March, May, July, and October and the 5th day of other months). Ides was the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; and the 13th in the other months. The rest of the days of the month did not have individual names, but were identified by counting backwards from the three named days. March 3 would be V Nones-five days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; the Nones would be counted as one of the five days). March 13 would be III Ides."

http://www.webcom.com/writers/newsletter0403.html

[question everything]

3. Thanks. Fascinating (nt)

[Phredicles]

4. It's the 13th for a 30-day month, and the 15th for (most) 31-day months

The Romans had a hilariously screwy calendar, or at least their way of keeping track of time was weird. Of course, any way of keeping track of time is artificial and subject to the idiosyncracies of the people who come up with the system; we're (or at least I am) accustomed to thinking of ours as reasonable in large part because it's what we're used to.