Lynching of Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville in Rome

Background. Bassville, born 7 February 1743, was trained for the priesthood and taught theology in a provincial seminary before moving to Paris. Through the Girondist minister Lebrun-Tondu he entered the diplomatic service, going in May 1792 as secretary of legation to Naples and then, without official status, to Rome.

Conduct in Rome. In Rome Bassville behaved as an outspoken revolutionary rather than a conventional diplomat. He talked at large of the "purple geese of the Capitol," a reference to the sacred geese of Juno whose saving of ancient Rome French Revolutionaries gave a Republican interpretation.

Death and Aftermath. On 13 January 1793 Bassville drove by coach with his wife, young son, and the French naval officer Charles de la Flotte to the Via del Corso, where he died. Pius VI sent his personal physician to the dying man, but the Convention magnified the affair as a deliberate murder of the Republic's representative on the pope's orders.