The siege of Genoa saw Austria besiege and capture the city of Genoa from France during the War of the Second Coalition. However, the battle was ultimately a successful diversion conducted by André Masséna's forces that allowed Napoleon to win the subsequent Battle of Marengo. In the end, around 30,000 of Genoa's 160,000 inhabitants had died of starvation and disease in the course of the siege.

Jean-Antoine Marbot, also known to contemporaries as Antoine Marbot, was a French general and politician. He belongs to a family that has distinguished itself particularly in the career of arms, giving three generals to France in less than 50 years.