When the Roman calendar was invented, the months revolved around three named days, these being the Kalends (sometimes "calends"), the Nones and the Ides. The people would then calculate all the other un-named days of the months around these three.

The Kalends of the months are the first day of every month, whereas the Nones were the 5th day of every month, except on March, May, July, and October when the Nones were on the 7th.

As for the Ides - these were the 13th of every month, except on March, May, July, and October when the Ides were on the 15th.

So, if you wanted to say "October 9" in Middle English, you'd say "the fourth Ide of October," meaning four days before the ide of October.

Sorry, I don't know the phrasing for dates after the 15th, but I suspect if you wanted to say, for example, "October 25," you'd say "the sixth Kalend of September." (I'm not sure about this, though.)

This is the Roman calendar, of course - which is 304 days long, and 10 months of 8-day weeks (I think). Since this calendar didn't synch with the seasons, it required adjustments constantly, and they did this during the first month of the year, which was February (there was no January yet). And some would abuse this need to adjust, thereby lengthening some years, and shortening others (which some Roman Emperors did), and messing up everyone's schedules - for example, it'd be difficult to figure out special days or holidays. In other words, it was a mess.

So using the Kalends, Ides and Nones were a convenient way of tracking dates because the Romans made it confusing.

For Shakespeare's day, it was just the way one colloquially referred to March 15. So, in his play, "Julius Caesar," when the soothsayer said to Caesar "beware the Ides of March," this just means "beware of March 15," because that's when he's supposed to die.

But, because of this play, nowadays, though, when you say "beware the Ides of March," it means it's a warning of death or bad luck, and has no real connection with the real meaning of the phrase.

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