Antoine Christophe Saliceti (Antoniu Cristufaru Saliceti in Corsican; August 26, 1757 – December 23, 1809) was a French politician and diplomat of the Revolution and First Empire.

Early career

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He was born a member of a Piacentine family in Saliceto, Corsica. After studying law in Tuscany, he became a lawyer at the upper council of Bastia, and was elected deputy of the Third Estate to the French Estates-General of 1789.

As deputy to the National Convention, Saliceti became a Montagnard and voted for the death of King Louis XVI, and was sent to Corsica on mission to oversee Pasquale Paoli and enforce the Reign of Terror. However, he was compelled to withdraw to Provence, where he took part in repressing the revolts at Marseille and Toulon. During this time he met and promoted his compatriot Napoleon Bonaparte.

Directory, Consulate, and Empire

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On account of his friendship with Maximilien Robespierre, Saliceti was denounced by the Thermidorian Reaction and was saved only by the amnesty of the French Directory. In 1796 Saliceti was commissioned to organize the French Revolutionary Army in the Campaigns of 1796, and the two départements into which Corsica had been divided after its recapture. Saliceti also became deputy to the Council of the Five Hundred, and served the Directory in missions to the Ligurian Republic.

Although an adversary of Napoleon's 18 Brumaire Coup that created the Consulate (1799), he was kept by the former as his representative to the Republic of Lucca (1801-1802) and Liguria (1805, engineering the territory's annexation to the Empire. In 1806, he followed Joseph Bonaparte to the Kingdom of Naples (where the latter had been imposed as King). He died in Naples after the fall of the Empire, in mysterious curcumstances (possibly poisoned).

References

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1757 births | 1809 deaths | Deputies to the French National Convention | First French Empire | French diplomats | French lawyers | Natives of Corsica

Christophe Saliceti