Abstract

The essay aims to examine the role played by the past in the republican press at the end of the 18th century, focusing on the Italian peninsula and adopting a perspective of comparative investigation. Firstly, an attempt is made to define the profile of the consumers of parallels and analogies with antiquity; subsequently, the linguistic-theoretical foundations of this rhetoric and the communicative strategies concretely implemented by journalists are analysed. They made use of the past and its wealth of models and experiences with the intention to control current events, which they pretended to inscribe in logical and narrative patterns supported by historical example in order to impose their ideas and establish themselves in the political arena. In the hands of republican journalists, the past became a toolnot only for reading the present, but also for imagining the future of the society that had emerged from the Revolution and for trying to give direction to the changes taking place.