Gabriele Pepe

Gabriele Pepe (december 7, 1779 - July 26, 1849) was an Italian soldier who fought in defence of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799. He was cousin to Guglielmo and Florestano Pepe.

Born in Civitacampomarano (current Molise), he entered the Neapolitan Army at an early age. In the events of the Neapolitan Republic, he was captured by royalist troops led by Fabrizio Ruffo and exiled to France. Here he fought for the Napoleonic armies both under Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat. He took part in the Neapolitan Revolution of 1820, and was again sent to exile, this time to Florence.

On February 19 1826, he duelled with poet Alphonse de Lamartine, who had compared Italians with "human dust" in his poem "Le Dernier Chant du pélerinage d'Harold [Je vais chercher ailleurs (pardonne ombre romaine!) Des hommes, et non pas de la poussière humaine. (Forgive Roman shade, I'm going to look elsewhere for men, and not for human dust.)] . He wounded the French poet in the right arm. In 1836 he returned to Naples where, although aged, he participated to the 1848 riots.

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