The coronavirus lockdowns enter their second year this month, a fact that has not been lost on the denizens of social media. Various memes ironically juxtaposing “March 2020 vs. March 2021” have been prevalent, often with the same picture simply posted twice. The joke, of course, is that there’s been little to no difference in circumstances vis-a-vis lockdown from last year to this, except in terms of fatigue.
Key to this sardonic internet humor is an observation, and lament, about how our perception of time and its passage has been wholly disrupted by the coronavirus and state containment measures. Prolonged isolation, work from home, and the mass cancellation of everyday life events have all severed us from the ways in which we typically perceive the passage of time. Major sporting events, yearly concerts or festivals, and even the simple operation of the academic year or the 9-5 workday all operate as informal signposts by which we differentiate days, months, and seasons on the calendar.
One such seasonal designator returns this week with the tipoff of March Madness. The cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament last year due to COVID-19 was a lightbulb moment for many that the pandemic was going to disrupt the status quo in ways we were not prepared for. It’s only fitting that its resumption this year, as more and more states begin to remove lockdown measures, feels like a sign of things beginning to move back toward normal.
But before we enjoy the return of March Madness (and the deep tournament run the Arkansas Razorbacks are about to make), we should first reflect on March 15 and the ides of March. The ides of March, of course, is remembered by history as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar by a group of some 60-odd Roman senators in 44 B.C. While the ides of March was marked by the Romans prior to this event — notably, it was held as a yearly deadline for the settling of debts — it has become inextricably associated with the killing of Caesar. Thanks to Shakespeare, we still think to “beware the ides of March.”
Yet it is thanks to Caesar, and not simply for his assassination, that we are even able to beware the ides of March. Upon his return to Rome from Egypt in 46 B.C., Caesar forced the senate to name him dictator of the republic for 10 years and set about rectifying the myriad of issues that had arisen during years of civil war and senatorial mismanagement. One such issue was time: He discovered that the Roman calendar was off by about 40 days. “The late republican senate was so inept they had literally lost track of time — the months, days, seasons,” explained Aaron Irvin, historian for Murray State University.
As dictator, Caesar created a new calendar based on a solar year, putting the entire republic on a universal timetable. This Julian calendar, as it is known, took effect in 45 B.C. and was the basis for the Gregorian calendar we use today. It was also, ironically, the one in place when, according to Plutarch, “a certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides.”
No good deed.
