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.

Under the Treaty of Tolentino, signed on 19 February, Pope Pius VII was forced to accept an ambassador of the French First Republic.

[2] The next year, French troops under General Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded the Papal States and occupied Rome on 11 February 1798.

[4] Claude Dallemagne, then provisional commander of Rome, found himself in charge of the city amid contradictory directives from Berthier and Masséna.

On the 14th of March, when the latter returned to Rome, the revolting officers called for his dismissal, his departure within 24 hours, and the granting of powers to Dallemagne while awaiting orders from the Directory.

[4] New orders arrived in Rome on 18 March, indicating a strengthening of the authority of the civil commissioners, the transfers of Berthier to the Army of England and of Masséna to Genoa, and the attribution of powers in the city to General Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr with orders to arrest the officers involved in the insurrections.

Although initially victorious at Ferentino, the French evacuated Rome and a Neapolitan army entered the lightly guarded city unopposed on 29 November, the very day that the War of the Second Coalition had begun.

[6] 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.