Grove City College history professor Mark Graham teaches several courses on the ancient world.

Butler County is filled with a variety of people doing interesting things. This weekly feature offers snapshots of some of them and their interests by asking them five questions. The latest installment appears below.

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Tuesday's date marks the Ides of March, best known in modern times as the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.

Mark Graham, 40, an associate professor of history at Grove City College, teaches several courses on the ancient world.

Graham lives in Grove City with his wife Becky and their children Estelle, 9, Sarah, 7, Phoebe, 4, and Ira, 2.

Here, he explains the meaning of the date and the value of studying history.

QUESTION: Where does the term “Ides” come from?ANSWER: The term itself probably comes from some type of association with the moon phase at the time, (the Roman calendar) was originally a lunar calendar. The Ides does not fall on the same day every month and for most other months, the Ides is going to be on the thirteenth. There's a rhyme for it: “March, October, July and May, the Ides are on the 15th day.”

QUESTION: How is the Roman calendar reflected in the calendar we use today?ANSWER: Our calendar is more or less based on it, just the very names we use for them. For example, January is named after the god Janus, who has one head but two faces and would look in both directions. Janus is the god of thresholds.

QUESTION: What is a little-known fact about Julius Caesar?ANSWER: Just before his death, in fact on the 14th of March, he was in a conversation with Lepidus (one of his supporters) who soon becomes a major political player and they start talking about what would be the best way to die. Caesar's response was that the best type of death would be that which comes suddenly and is unexpected, and that's literally what comes to him the next day.

QUESTION: What is the value of studying history? How is it relevant?ANSWER: You might not think that something that happened in the ninth or 10th century connects to your life, but maybe if we define it in terms of a tradition, if we can understand how they worked and lived, we can see something about the character and creativity of humanity. There's a beauty to that that I love students to see.

QUESTION: How did you become interested in history?ANSWER: I can trace back my interest in history and ancient history specifically back to about the second grade. My mother bought me a book on the pharaohs. I actually keep it on my shelf facing me; I always keep it as a reminder of how I got into this. I always had a real love of history.