When "Viribus Unitis" was commissioned on 6 October 1912, she was at the time the most expensive warship ever to be constructed. The Italian "Dante Alighieri" had been laid down before "Viribus Unitis" but was not commissioned until January 1913. This meant Austria-Hungary became the sixth nation, after the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, the United States, and Japan to possess a dreadnought battleship. Montecuccoli addressed the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments on 15 October 1912 and laid out his vision for the role the "Tegetthoff" class would play in naval policy. Declaring that Austria-Hungary had become "a Mediterranean power" in light of her new dreadnoughts, Montecuccoli expected that the new class of battleships would help Austria-Hungary "assume our proper place among the Mediterranean powers".