Education: Et Tu. N.Y.U.?

As a warning to the overeager, Classicist Jotham Johnson of New York University posted a special memo in the classics department last week. "The sordid rumor has been promulgated," he wrote, "that March 15, 1956 is the 2,000th anniversary of those Ides of March on which CJ. Caesar was assassinated. This results from an inaccurate or hasty computation, for March 15, 44 B.C. to March 15, 1 B.C. equals only 43 years; March 15, 1 B.C. to March 15, 1 A.D. equals one year. (There was no zero year.) March 15, 1 A.D. to March 15, 1956 makes a total, then,...

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