Editing Ides of March (section)

==Ides==
The Romans did not number each day of a month from the first to the last day. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the [[Nones (calendar)|Nones]] (the 5th or 7th, eight days before the Ides), the [[Ides (calendar)|Ides]] (the 13th for most months, but the 15th in March, May, July, and October), and the [[Kalends]] (1st of the following month).

Originally the Ides were supposed to be determined by the [[full moon]], reflecting the [[lunar calendar|lunar origin]] of the Roman calendar. ''Martius'' (March) was the first month of the Roman year until as late as the mid-second century BC, an order reflected in the numerical names of the months of September (the seventh month) through December (the tenth month) not corresponding to their current position on the Gregorian calendar. In the earliest Roman calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the new year.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[H.H. Scullard|Scullard, H.H.]] |title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul|url-access=limited|publisher=Cornell University Press |date=1981 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul/page/n41 42]–43|isbn=9780801414022 }}</ref> As a fixed point in the month, the Ides accumulated functions set to occur every month, and was the day when debt payments and rents were due.<ref>Sarit Kattan Gribetz, "A Matter of Time: Writing Jewish Memory into Roman History," ''AJS Review'' 40:1 (2016), p. 58, n. 4.</ref><ref>Agnes Kirsopp Michels, ''The Calendar of the Roman Republic'' (Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 78.</ref>

===Religious observances===
[[File:Sousse mosaic calendar March.JPG|thumb|Panel thought to depict the Mamuralia, from a [[Roman mosaic|mosaic]] of the months in which March is positioned at the beginning of the year (first half of the third century AD, from [[El Djem]], [[Tunisia]], in [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Africa]])]]
The month of Martius was named for the [[Mars (deity)|god Mars]], whose "[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies natalis|birthday]]" was celebrated on the first, but the Ides of each month were sacred to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], the Romans' supreme deity. The [[Flamen Dialis]], Jupiter's high priest, led the "Ides sheep" ({{lang|la|ovis Idulis}}) in procession along the [[Via Sacra]] to the {{lang|la|[[Arx (Roman)|arx]]}}, where it was [[Animal sacrifice|sacrificed]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Scullard, H.H. |title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic |page=43}}</ref>

March retained many of its new-year ceremonies even when it was preceded on the calendar by January and February. In addition to the monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also the occasion of the Feast of [[Anna Perenna]], a goddess of the year (Latin {{lang|la|annus}}) whose festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year. The day was enthusiastically celebrated among the common people with picnics, drinking, and revelry.<ref>{{cite book |author=Scullard, H.H. |title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic |page=90}}</ref> One source from [[late antiquity]] also places the [[Mamuralia]] on the Ides of March.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[John Lydus|Lydus, John]] (6th century) |title=De mensibus 4.36}} Other sources place it on 14 March.</ref> This observance, which has aspects of [[scapegoat]] or ancient Greek ''[[pharmakos|{{transliteration|grc|pharmakos}}]]'' ritual, involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and perhaps driving him from the city. The ritual may have been a new-year festival representing the expulsion of the [[Father Time|old year]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Salzman, Michele Renee |title=On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity |url=https://archive.org/details/onromantimecodex00salz |url-access=limited |publisher=University of California Press |date=1990 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/onromantimecodex00salz/page/n243 124]& 128–129|isbn=9780520065666 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[William Warde Fowler|Fowler, William Warde]] |title=The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsp02fowlgoog|location=London |date=1908 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsp02fowlgoog/page/n60 44]–50|publisher=Macmillan }}</ref>

In the later [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]], the Ides began a [[Cybele#'Holy week' in March|"holy week" of festivals]] celebrating [[Cybele]] and [[Attis]],<ref>{{cite book |author=Lancellotti, Maria Grazia |title=Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God |publisher=Brill |date=2002 |page=81}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Lançon, Bertrand |author-link=Bertrand Lançon |title=Rome in Late Antiquity |publisher=Routledge |date=2001 |page=91}}</ref><ref> {{cite book |author=Borgeaud, Philippe |title=Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary & Hochroth, Lysa (Translator) |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |date=2004 |pages=51, 90, 123, 164}}</ref> being the day {{lang|la|Canna intrat}} ("The Reed enters"), when Attis was born and found among the reeds of a [[Phrygia]]n river.<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History'' (Routledge, 2012), p. 88; Lancellotti, ''Attis, Between Myth and History'', p. 81.</ref> He was discovered by shepherds or the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the {{lang|la|Magna Mater}} ("Great Mother") (narratives differ).<ref>Michele Renee Salzman, ''On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (University of California Press, 1990), p. 166.</ref> A week later, on 22 March, the solemn commemoration of {{lang|la|Arbor intrat}} ("The Tree enters") commemorated the death of Attis under a pine tree. A college of priests, the {{transliteration|grc|dendrophoroi}} ("tree bearers") annually cut down a tree,<ref>Jaime Alvar, ''Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras,'' translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), pp. 288–289.</ref> hung from it an image of Attis,<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'', 27.1; Rabun Taylor, "Roman Oscilla: An Assessment", ''RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics'' 48 (Autumn 2005), p. 97.</ref> and carried it to the temple of the {{lang|la|Magna Mater}} with lamentations. The day was formalized as part of the official Roman calendar under [[Claudius]] ({{abbr|d.|died}} 54 AD).<ref>Lydus, ''De Mensibus'' 4.59; [[Suetonius]], ''Otho'' 8.3; Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88.</ref> A three-day period of mourning followed,<ref>Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88.</ref> culminating with celebrating the rebirth of Attis on 25 March, the date of the [[March equinox|vernal equinox]] on the [[Julian calendar]].<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 1.21.10; Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion,'' p. 88; Salzman, ''On Roman Time,'' p. 168.</ref>