Beware the Ides of March

An interesting theater legend that's probably not true. Only one time were all 3 Booth brothers--Edwin, John Wilkes, and Junius--cast in the same play. It was for a production of Julius Caesar in New York. John Wilkes desperately wanted the role of Brutus. Who is the main character. But that part went to Edwin, who was the headliner, with a much larger following. Supposedly, John Wilkes never got over being slighted. So it's thought that if he couldn't play a political assassin on stage, he became one in real life. A cool story, but likely made up.

And a multiple choice question. Without Googling, how many times was Julius Caesar stabbed?

1) 8
2) 11
3) 23
4) 25
5) 28

Chesterton said:

First of all, I don't know what Ides are, so I don't know why I should beware them. More importantly, anyone smart enough not to fall for the conspiracy theories knows that Julius Caesar committed suicide, just like Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy. Yes, they were each very elaborately staged suicides, but that just goes to show that they were very elaborately staged.

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In the Roman calendar, the Ides is the 15th day—the middle day of each month. The phrase is from Shakespeare’s play. A soothsayer warns Caesar to beware of that day. But he ignored it. The conspirators (led primarily by Brutus and Cassius) were afraid he would end the Roman republic, and assume imperial powers for himself. So he had to be cancelled. And on March 15, 44 BC, he was attacked in one of the Senate meeting places, and (as the 2nd post correctly notes,) he was killed by 23 stab wounds. As best we know, it happened 2067 years ago today.