Fought on the hilly ground between Lake Garda and the Adige River, a dozen miles northwest of Verona, the Battle of Rivoli was Bonaparte’s most decisive victory in his first Italian campaign. The defeat at Rivoli led to the failure of the last Austrian attempt at relieving Mantua. After the capitulation of the fortress at the beginning of February 1797, Bonaparte could move his army to the Austrian borders, thus speeding up the chain of events leading to the end of the war in Italy and the Peace of Campo Formio.
After the Battle of Arcola in November 1796, both armies, tired, depleted, and worn to rags, would have welcomed a period of rest in winter quarters. Their hopes were to remain unfulfilled. After recent French defeat in Germany, the Directory looked toward peace and sent Minister Henri Clarke to Italy for armistice talks. Expecting Mantua to surrender very soon, Bonaparte opposed a cease-fire. It was the Aulic Council in Vienna, however, that entertained stronger reasons for reopening hostilities in Italy as soon as possible. The first was to make a new attempt at rescuing Mantua before lack of supplies and malarial disease forced Feldmarschall Dagobert Graf Würmser to capitulate. Political reasons were also at work.
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