Bonaparte’s entry into Milan

General Bonaparte entered Milan on 15 May 1796, at the head of the French army, following his victory at the Bridge of Lodi. Welcomed as a liberator by part of the population, he drove out the Austrians and made the city the centre of the new Cisalpine Republic.
This famous episode opens Stendhal’s novel *The Charterhouse of Parma*.
‘On 15 May 1796, General Bonaparte made his entry into Milan at the head of this young army which had just crossed the bridge at Lodi and shown the world that, after so many centuries, Caesar and Alexander had a successor.’