Ides of October

Over the weekend of March 6-8 2020, the Dulcimer Association of Albany held its 31st Annual Dulcimer Festival in Latham, New York. The Dulcimer Association of Albany is a group of mountain dulcimer players who meet once a month to play dulcimers together. At the festival on Saturday, in a workshop called “Ensembles with Classical Music,” one of the handouts distributed to participants was a piece written by the workshop leader on October 15th. The title of the tune was “The Ides of October,” and as the Ides of March fall today, March 15th, here’s a little background on the Roman calendar.

“Beware the Ides of March,” a soothsayer warns Julius Caesar in Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s play, The Life and Death of Julius Caesar. By Act 3, scene 1, Julius Caesar announces to the soothsayer, “The Ides of March are come.” The soothsayer responds, “Ay, Caesar; but not gone.”

The Ides of March on an ancient Roman calendar is March 15th on a modern calendar. Also the Ides of May, July, and October fall on the 15th of each of those months; in all the other Roman months the Ides fall on the 13th on a modern calendar.

The Roman calendar fascinates beginning Latin students. A Roman counted forward to the next fixed date in a month. The first of every month in a Roman calendar is called Kalendae or Calends. The next fixed date is the Nonae or Nones (pronounced Nōnz) that fall on the 5th or 7th of a month, and the third fixed date is Idus or Ides on the 13th or 15th. To identify a date, a Roman counted the number of days to the next fixed date and that Roman included both the day he was on and the next fixed day. The modern date “March 13th” is written in Latin as III a.d. Id. Mart. (three days before the Ides of March) by counting the 13th (1), 14th (2), and 15th (3). The day before the next fixed date has a special designation; yesterday, March 14th, in Latin is prid. Id. Mart. “the day before” the Ides of March. 

Why do we still count down to the Ides of March? Great historical events capture the imagination. In American history we remember December 7th 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and we remember  D-Day, June 6th 1944, the invasion of Normandy, France. We will never forget September 11th 2001 when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were attacked. In Roman history on the Ides of March 44 B.C., a conspiracy of Roman senators assassinated the self-declared Dictator Perpetuus (Dictator for Life) Julius Caesar and precipitated the Roman Civil War that brought the Roman Republic to an end by 27 B.C. when a new leader, Julius Caesar’s great-nephew, later known as Caesar Augustus, became the first Roman emperor. 

And the Ides of October? We both remember and celebrate this date, for in 70 B.C. the great Roman poet Vergil was born.

Boning Up on Biotechnology

Public television station channel 25, WNYC in the New York City area, offers programming about people and events in New York City. A half-hour program on Monday evenings called Her Big Idea introduces viewers to four women entrepreneurs in New York City. A recent episode featured a woman who began a construction company; one who started a hydroponic farm in a vacant 2500-square-foot lot; one who started a clothing collection and repurposing company to keep millions of pounds of clothing out of landfills; and Nina Tandon, co-founder and CEO of EpiBone, a biotechnology company “on a mission to use groundbreaking research to transform skeletal repair” by allowing a patient to grow new bone from his/her own cells.

The name EpiBone contains “epi” a Greek preposition with several meanings including “on, upon, after, at.” Epi appears in English words like epitaph, something (written) on a tomb or ephemeral, something that passes after a day or brief time. An eponym puts a name upon a thing, like watt, bloomers, and vulcanization, three words that originate in the names of a Scottish inventor (James Watt), an American woman (Amelia Bloomer), and a Roman god (Vulcan). EpiBone is a big idea coming to life.

Ports in a Storm

Buckets of rain fell in Rose Bay, Nova Scotia on Sunday, January 12th, 2020. The New Year was well underway, and neighbors on Kingsburg Road gathered after dinner to taste a Warre 1975 Port that had been carefully stored for the past forty-five years. Decanted into a crystal pitcher, the ruby liquid awaited eager lips on this January night, as the rain finally stopped and the wind began to rise.

We held our small glasses to the light and examined the fine color, a blend of amber and ruby, that boded well for our tongues. We inhaled the heady aroma of the wine. The first sip revealed a complex and warm treat. Five-year-old cheddar, crackers, and dark chocolate were among the accompaniments. We sipped and conversed and held up our glasses to delight in the clear and beautiful color. Alas, the small glasses were soon drained, and we savored a twenty-one-year-old late-bottled vintage from the Opimian Society, the Canadian wine club for discriminating lovers of wine.

We finished the evening with a deep red five-year-old port full of fruity flavors including fig, cherry, and spice, from the Sainte Famille winery in Falmouth, Nova Scotia. 

The Opimian Society, now known as Opimian Wine Club, derived its name in 1973 from Lucius Opimius, a Roman consul who declared a Falernian wine vintage in 121 BC superb. Opimianus became a Latin adjective to describe an excellent Falernian wine. (This Wine Spectator article has more information on Falernian wine.) 

The ports we encountered in our winter storm were worthy to be deemed Opimian.