d'une
republique (Paris, 1885).]

*388. The Ligurian, Roman, and Parthenopaean Republics, 1797-1799.*--In
the meantime, in June, 1797, the ancient republic of Genoa had
undergone a remodelling. The ruling oligarchy, driven from power by
Napoleon, gave place to a democracy of a moderate type, the (p. 355)
legislative functions being intrusted to two popularly elected
chambers, while the executive power was vested in a doge and twelve
senators; and to the new commonwealth, French in all but name, was
given the designation of the Ligurian Republic. The Ligurian
constitution was accepted by the people December 2, 1797. During the
winter of 1797-1798 the French Directory, openly hostile to the
papacy, persistently encouraged the democratic party at Rome to
overthrow the temporal power and to set up an independent republic.
February 15, 1798, with the aid of French arms, the democrats secured
the upper hand, assembled in the Forum, declared for the restoration
of the Roman Republic, and elected as head of the state a body of
seven consuls. The aged pontiff, Pius VI., was maltreated and
eventually transported to France. For the new Tiberine, or Roman,
Republic was promulgated, March 20, 1798, a constitution providing for
the customary two councils--a Senate of thirty members and a Tribunate
of sixty--and a directory, christened a consulate, consisting of five
consuls elected by the councils. Within a twelvemonth thereafter
(January 23, 1799), following a clash of arms between the French and
the Neapolitan sovereign, Ferdinand IV., Naples was taken and the
southern kingdom was converted into the Parthenopaean Republic. A
constitution was there promulgated providing for a directory of five
members, a Senate of fifty, possessing exclusive right of legislative
initiative, and a Tribunate of one hundred twenty.[521]

[Footnote 521: For an interesting portrayal of the
workings of republican idealism in the Neapolitan
republic see Fisher, Republican Tradition in
Europe, 150-157.]

*389. Constitutional Revisions.*--During the absence of Napoleon on the
Egyptian expedition the armies of France suffered repeated reverses in
Italy, and by the end of 1799 all that had been gained for France
seemed to be, or about to be, lost. By the campaign which culminated
at Marengo (June 14, 1800), however, Napoleon not only clinched his
newly won