MIOLLIS, SIXTE-ALEXANDRE. — General, born at Aix on 18 September 1759, died there on 18 June 1828. The fifth of sixteen children—including Carlo Francesco, bishop of Digne—he embraced a military career at a very young age and followed Lafayette on the American expedition. A captain in 1789, although belonging to an aristocratic family, he joined the Revolution and fought first in the republican armies and subsequently in the Napoleonic ones, distinguishing himself particularly in the Italian campaigns from 1796 to 1801. Later governor of Mantua, Dalmatia, and Livorno, he protected archaeology and the arts: in Mantua he inaugurated a bust of Virgil, had the Verona arena restored, and had Ariosto’s remains honored in Ferrara.
Entrusted in 1808 with occupying Rome and arresting Pius VII, to whom he was nevertheless deeply devoted, he lacked the dignity and courage to withdraw from a mission so sad and ignominious, especially for a soldier and a believer, and remained in Rome as governor-general until 1814. He exercised this office not without tact and moderation, giving considerable impetus to cultural activities. Important excavations in the Forum, as well as works of consolidation and restoration on the Colosseum, the Temple of Vesta, the Cloaca Maxima, and other monuments, are owed to him. He was a friend of Canova, whose advice he employed in reorganizing numerous art and educational institutions; the allowances connected with the comital title, which Napoleon had bestowed upon him, he devoted entirely to embellishing the city. After the fall of the Empire, he swore allegiance to Louis XVIII, who entrusted him with command of the division of Marseille; but during the Hundred Days he returned to the Napoleonic ranks, assuming command of the fortress of Metz. Removed from the army in 1815, he devoted the final thirteen years of his life to archaeological studies and practices of piety.