It's the Ides of March, a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. The Romans considered it a suitable time for settling debts but since 44BC it has been notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
How did the murder go down? "The main Senate House was being rebuilt on Caesar’s orders, so the fateful meeting was instead at the Curia behind the porticoed gardens attached to the great Theatre of Pompey," explains Dominic Selwood. "Decked out in his triumphant general’s reddish-purple toga embroidered in gold, Julius Caesar, Dictator of Rome, entered the Senate’s meeting room, and ascended his golden throne. The end came quickly. A group of Senators approached the dais. Daggers were produced from the capsae document chests the slaves had recently brought in. The metal flashed. In a frenzied attack, the most powerful man in Rome was stabbed 23 times."
Following Rome's decline, the Theatre of Pompey was already little more than a ruin by the 11th century, when it was converted into two churches and houses. Today the Campo de' Fiori square sits on the remains.
The exact spot of the assassination, however (the Curia), is believed to be within the Largo di Torre Argentina, which is home to the ruins of four ancient Roman temples. The square also the location of a cat sanctuary.
Read on to see the locations of 12 more famous assassinations...
