Even though in 2007, the 2051st anniversary of Caesar's assassination falls on March 28 due to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, it seemed appropriate to remember him today with an excerpt from Act II, Scene ii of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when Calphurnia emplores Caesar to take the comet they see as a portent and to stay away from the Senate on the Ides of March.

On this night when neither "heaven nor earth hath peace" both his wife and the "augurers" urged Caesar to stay home. Calphurnia: "When beggars die there are no comets seen. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

The fatalistic Caesar replies:

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.