thumb|50px|right|Alternative Coat of Arms of the Roman Republic (1798–99)The Roman Republic () was a sister republic of the First French Republic that existed from 1798 to 1799. It was proclaimed on 15 February 1798 after Louis-Alexandre Berthier, a general of the French Revolutionary Army, had occupied the city of Rome on 11 February. It was led by a Directory of five men and comprised territory conquered from the Papal States. The Roman Republic immediately incorporated two other former-papal revolutionary administrations, the Tiberina Republic and the Anconine Republic. It proved short-lived, as Neapolitan troops restored the Papal States in October 1799.
Background
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the Papal States, under the temporal authority of the pope in Rome, was part of the First Coalition. After defeating the Kingdom of Sardinia early in the Italian campaign of 1796–1797, General Napoleon Bonaparte turned his attention south of Piedmont to deal with the Papal States. Bonaparte, skeptical over divided command for the invasion, sent two letters to the French Directory. The letters convinced the Directory to delay the invasion of the Papal States for a while. On 3 February 1797, the French defeated the pope's army at the Battle of Faenza. Under the Treaty of Tolentino, signed on 19 February, Pope Pius VI was forced to accept an ambassador of the French First Republic.
On 27 December 1797, General Léonard Duphot, a military attaché at the French embassy in Rome, was killed while trying to defuse a riot in front of the embassy. After throwing himself between the rioters and papal troops, he was shot by the soldiers and later lynched by a mob in front of the Porta Settimiana. The institutions of the new sister republic were organized on the French model by Gaspard Monge and Pierre Daunou, with the help of local revolutionaries such as the engraver Francesco Piranesi and French residents of Rome such as .
On 24 February 1798, on the occasion of a ceremony for General Duphot, hundreds of French soldiers gathered in front of the Pantheon and addressed their grievances to generals Berthier and André Masséna, commander of the Army of Rome (Armée de Rome). The soldiers demanded the payment of salaries and the punishment of those responsible for looting during the invasion of the Papal States. Championnet would go on to occupy Naples in January 1799 and proclaim the Parthenopean Republic.
Following a second Neapolitan invasion on 30 September 1799, the Papal States were restored under the rule of Pope Pius VII in June 1800, bringing the Roman Republic to an end. The French Army invaded the Papal States again in 1808, after which it was partitioned between the First French Empire and the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
Government
The Roman Republic's constitutional organization was heavily influenced by that of the French Constitution of 1795, which itself was inspired by and loosely based on that of the ancient Roman Republic. Executive authority was vested in five consuls. The legislative branch was composed of two chambers, a 60-member Tribunate and a 30-member Senate, which elected the consuls.
Gallery
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File:Entrée de l'armée française dans Rome en 1798, Musée de la Révolution française - Vizille.jpg|Entry of the French army into Rome on 15 February 1798 (Musée de la Révolution française)
File:Entrée de l’Armée française à Rome - Hippolyte Lecomte.png|Entry of the French army into Rome on 15 February 1798 (Palace of Versailles)
File:CHODZKO(1839) p257 LES POLONAIS A ROME, EN 1798.jpg|Polish legionnaires on Capitoline Hill, May 1798
File:10 Paoli - Roman Republic, Quadrate (1798) Heliomagic 01.jpg|Assegnato issued by the Roman Republic
File:Prima Repubblica Romana (1798-1799) - 2 baiocchi (1798) Anno VI.jpg|2 baiocchi coin minted by the Roman Republic
File:Italy 1799.jpg|Early modern Italy in 1799
</gallery>
See also
- Quum memoranda
- List of historical states of Italy
- Napoleonic looting of art
- Unification of Italy (1848–1871)