Description

Garibaldi's scream: "OR ROME OR DEATH!"

Painted by the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix.

After having freed the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from the Bourbons, Garibaldi (1807 - 1882) started a new expedition, this time the goal was the liberation of Rome, therefore in a speech in Marsala to his Garibaldians he launched the motto: "O Roma o morte!". The expedition was interrupted for political reasons by the Piedmontese army on August 9, 1862, on the Aspromonte in Calabria, where Garibaldi himself was first wounded in the leg, then arrested and exiled to Caprera. Rome was then occupied without great difficulty by the Bersaglieri, on September 20, 1870, who opened a gap with cannons near Porta Pia, the papal army opposed a rather mild resistance, in fact the losses of both sides were contained.

Despite the failure of the expedition to liberate Rome and expel Pope Pius IX, Giuseppe Garibaldi will remain the most admired and celebrated Italian character of the 19th century, symbol of the wars of the Risorgimento, hero of two worlds and father of the country.