Pater Patriae

Pater Patriae (plural Patres Patriae), also seen as Parens Patriae, is a Latin honorific meaning "Father of the Country", or more literally, "Father of the Fatherland".

It was first awarded to Roman general Marcus Furius Camillus in 386 BC, who for his role in the aftermath of the Gallic siege of Rome was considered a second founder of the city, in succession to Romulus.

It was awarded to Julius Caesar, who as dictator became the de facto ruler of the Roman republic and its imperium, for having ended the civil wars.

Octavius was granted the titles of Augustus Caesar after another civil war started by the assassination of Julius Caesar. He began an increase in the welfare state of Rome until he was granted the title of Pater Patriae by a vote of the Senate in 2 BC.

The office did not add legitimacy to his legal powers like Imperator, Caesar, Augustus, princeps senatus, pontifex maximus and tribunicia potestas. But as the Patronus of the people it added popularity as a benefactor.

Augustus received this most prestigious title, the Pater Patriae, on February 5, 2 B.C.E. which was the Day of Concord on the Roman religious calendar.

In the Res Gestae, composed by Augustus himself, he wrote:

“While I was administering my thirteenth consulship the senate and the equestrian order and the entire Roman people gave me the title Father of my Country.” Res Gestae, VI.35.

Romans and non-citizens swore oaths "at the altars of Augustus in the temples of Augustus in the various districts.” These altars collected a tax to provide for the welfare of the people because religion, the care for the needy of society, had become a public matter of the government. With Christians it remained a private matter. It was in this distinction the Christian conflict brought persecution.

There were oaths of allegiance at the payment of taxes in the temple area where benefits were also distributed. We can see them recorded under Nero, Trajanus and others:

“And I swear by the Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus that I have kept nothing back.” Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilization, 388.

“We swear by the fortune of the Emperor Caesar Trajanus Hadrian Augustus. ... under oath.” Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilization, II.387.

In Paphlagonia of north central Asia Minor there was an inscription dated in 3 B.C. which recorded an oath of obedient allegiance “taken by the inhabitants of Paphlagonia and the Roman businessmen dwelling among them.” Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilization, II.34–35.

In “ordered that a census be taken of each province everywhere and that all men be enrolled... all the peoples of the great nations took oath, and at the same time, through the participation in the census, were made apart of one society” Paulus Orosius, historian and theologian in the 5th century, VI.22 and VII.2.

The Christians were bard from taking oaths by Christ's command to Swear not as a matter of doctrine and policy. But also they could not pray to the fathers of the earth for their daily bread, nor covet their neighbor's goods through men who called themselves benefactors but exercised authority.

This system of making the state your Father also included Birth_registration. "Although birth certificates have survived only in Egypt, literary refferences to such registrations prove the system operated throughout the empire." Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire By Clifford Ando, page 355

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Pater Patriae

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