The phrase “beware the Ides of March” is from William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, about the Roman leader’s assassination in 44 bce. In the play a soothsayer warns Caesar to “beware the Ides of March,” but the dictator dismisses the advice, saying, “He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.” Caesar is later assassinated on that day—March 15—and the phrase has come to serve as a warning of misfortune and doom.
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