Pater Patriae

It was first awarded to Roman general Marcus Furius Camillus in 386 BC, for his role in liberating the city after the Gallic sack of Rome.

It reflected the popular view that Camillus was effectively a second founder of the city, after Romulus, who was retrospectively considered to be pater patriae.

Three centuries later, it was awarded to the orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, for his part in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy in 63 BC.

Caesar had packed the Senate with his own supporters, who voted him the title in 45 BC for having ended the civil wars that he had started himself.

According to the historian Suetonius, Augustus' successor Tiberius was offered this title, but refused it as premature and inappropriate.

The next emperor, Nero, declined when it was offered by the Senate during the first year of his reign, on the basis that he was too young for such a title.

It was awarded by national parliaments or loyal subjects to: George Washington, the first President of the United States; King Gustav I of Sweden; the Dutch Stadtholder William of Orange; Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil; and the four leaders of Italian unification: Camillo Cavour, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini and King Victor Emmanuel II.