Jean-Lambert Tallien
Date of Birth
January 23, 1767
Date of Death
November 16, 1820
About
A journalist elected to the Convention in 1792, Tallien was sent to Bordeaux after the defeat of the city’s revolt against the national government, where he and Claude-Alexandre Ysabeau oversaw a severe repression. Recalled to Paris and threatened by Robespierre, Tallien helped bring about his arrest on 27 July. His most lasting intervention came a month later, when he denounced the preceding government as a “system of terror”. Drawing partly on arguments developed by Pierre-Louis Roederer, he helped establish the Terror as a distinct period associated with Robespierre, the governing committees and the Jacobins. Tallien subsequently supported the closure of the Jacobin Club, but his political influence soon declined. He joined Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt and died in Paris in 1820.