V.
Eight years after Alfieri's dedication, that popolo italiano futuro saw what was destined to become the symbol of Italy's national aspirations. In January, 1797, during the republican movement that accompanied the invasion of Italy by the French revolutionary armies, the future banner of the nation—the tricolour of red, white, and green, the mystical hues of love and faith and hope—was raised for the first time at Reggio Emilia (1).
In spite of the devastations of the French armies and the prepotency of the conqueror (himself of Italian name and Italian blood), to whom, in common with a great part of Europe, Italy was made subject, the revolutionary and Napoleonic era stimulated the national consciousness of Italians, turning their thoughts—though as yet but vaguely—towards an ultimate renovation and unification. "Potremo sperare di risorgere fra non molto," the poet Giovanni Fantoni had written in 1796 (2). In an ode. La Repubblica Cisalpina (written at the end of 1797), Giovanni Pindemonte salutes the national banner, uttering the hope that the new republic may liberate all the other Italian states, reign "sul bel paese intero," and change its name from "Cisalpina" to "Italica." He is addressing Milan:—
"Oggi in te la Repubblica nascente
fonda suo centro e di sua possa il nido;
e finor troppo ignoto Italia sente
uscir da te di libertade il grido.
"Il Mincio istesso nel cui forte aiuto
il Teutone oppressor vivea tranquillo,
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