The Ides of March
In Roman times, Kalends, Nones and Ides were ancient markets that were used to reference dates in relation to lunar phases with Ides referencing to the first full moon of a given month which was usually between 13th and 15th of a month. Due to this, the Ides of March was like a new year of some sort and there was much celebrations and rejoicing. Up until 44BC, the Ides of March was used a deadline for settling debts so what happened?
Well, from 44BC onwards the Ides of March became the death anniversary of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was Rome's leader and he led many conquests in Europe like conquering Gaul (now France).
Caesar became Dictator of Rome for life near the end of his life. There were some Romans who thought that Caesar had too much power and that he had to die.
At the time of his death, the Roman Senate were meeting at a theatre called the Theatre of Pompey where Brutus and other senators stabbed Caesar 22 times on 15 March 44BC in broad daylight. After his death, Caesar was cremated (his body was burned and his bone fragments were then crushed up into cremains)
Julius was survived by his wife Calpurnia and his children Augustus (who was adopted from his siblings after Caesar's death), Caesarion and Julia Caesaris.
The site of Caesar's death, Largo di Torre Argentina, is now a cat sanctuary
The cat in the fact card
On theme with the current use of the Largo di Torre Argentina, I decided to add my rescue cat Luna who I adopted from a local animal rescue in July 2019, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing, which is why I called her Luna. My dad has called her Lunatic for being slightly feral (she was found by the rescue volunteers out in the countryside near Stradbally, the venue for the Electric Picnic) as well as rat (for stealing food) and the assassin (because she scrawbed his face open while we were watching Liverpool FC play against Chelsea in the FA Cup Final 2022 all because Benji (our border collie) chased her as a puppy).
This photo was taken on the day that this fact card was made but I had some difficulty with taking pictures of her facial markings as she kept turning her head away and putting her head down. She's a bit camera shy.