ET TU, IGNORAMUS?

I felt March roll in when the cool breeze that had been letting me save on electricity bills since December suddenly stopped blowing, like an electric fan rudely turned off. And then I was reminded of the Ides of March.

- RICARDO T. PAMINTUAN

The what?

If you ask the average young (or even aging) Filipino about the Ides of March, you'll likely get these responses: a blank stare, a vague recollection of seeing it in a crossword puzzle, a hesitant guess that it's an international clothing brand, or that Ryan Gosling-George Clooney movie you never actually watched. We can't entirely blame them. Philippine schools spent so much time on Rizal and the Katipunan that ancient Rome barely got a footnote.

So, what's the fuss about the Ides of March, once one of the most infamous dates in history, but as relevant today as a rotary phone? Well, the 15th of March in 44 B.C. was the day Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times by his so-called friends. Among them was his BFF Brutus, who delivered the ultimate betrayal to settle their political disagreements. You know the line: "Et tu, Brute?"—possibly the first instance in recorded history of someone saying, "I trusted you, bro." But to be clear, Shakespeare took creative liberties in writing that dialogue. The real Caesar, according to historical accounts, may not even have uttered anything quite so poetic. He likely just grunted in shock and disbelief as he bled out, clutching his spilled guts in the middle of the Senate floor.

The term "Ides" simply referred to the middle of the month in the Roman calendar, not some ominous doomsday prophecy. Romans, being the bureaucratic overachievers they were, had specific names for different parts of the month. But thanks to Caesar's unfortunate rendezvous with daggers, "Ides of March" is now shorthand for "Watch your back."