thegetty: Today is the Ides of March—infamous day of Julius Caesar’s assassination in an
thegetty:Today is the Ides of March—infamous day of Julius Caesar’s assassination in ancient Rome in 44 B.C. The “Ides” were part of the Roman calendar, signifying the midpoint of the month.In his diary entry on the Ides 60 years ago today, the Getty’s founder J. Paul Getty wrote, “2000 years ago today Julius Caesar was assassinated. I have always considered him as the ablest man that history records. A consummate statesman, politician, general, orator, prose writer, builder and a very human man with great personal charm. For his day he was a man of good character and kindness. His one great weakness was his inability to distinguish between the possible and the impossible. Had he lived another 15 or 20 years the history of the world might have been different.”Fun fact: the month of July is named after Julius Caesar, who was divinized by the Romans after his death.Artwork: Julius Caesar from the calendar pages of the Stammheim Missal, an illuminated manuscript made around A.D. 1170. It’s currently on display in the exhibition Remembering Antiquity: The Ancient World Through Medieval Eyes at the Getty Center. -- source link
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