Following the French Revolution, he initially joined the counter-revolutionary Army of Condé. Following the French conquest of Italy in 1796–1797, he was employed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his schemes to exploit the Greek aspirations for independence from the Ottoman Empire; Napoleon sent Stefanopoli as his agent to Greece in 1797, and reportedly even considered him as a potential candidate for the Greek throne. The French invasion of Egypt put an end to Napoleon's plans for a Greek insurrection, and Stefanopoli returned to France, where he published his "Voyage en Grèce" in 1800.