“I have thought for some time that it would be well to open a critical arena in _Die Horen_. Yet we should not give away our rights by formally inviting the public and the authors. The public would certainly be represented by the most miserable voices, and the authors, as we know from experience, would become very importunate. My proposition is that we make the attack ourselves. In case the authors wish to defend themselves in _Die Horen_, they must submit to our conditions. And my advice is, not to begin with propositions, but to begin with deeds. There is no harm if we are denounced as ill-bred.” Several letters were exchanged on this subject, and Goethe wrote in a letter of December 23, 1795, to Schiller: “We must cultivate the idea of making epigrams upon all journals; one distich for each magazine, in the manner of Martial’s _Xenia_; and we must publish a collection of them in the _Musen-Almanach_ of next year. Enclosed are some Xenions as a specimen.” Schiller answered at once, December 23, 1795: “The idea of the Xenions is splendid and must be carried out.... What a wealth of material is offered by the Stolbergs, by Racknitz, Ramdohr, the metaphysical world with its _Me’s_ and _Not-Me’s_, friend Nicolai, our sworn enemy, the Leipsic taste-mongers, Thümmel, with Göschen as his horsegroom, and others.” Thus the two poets decided to wage a destructive war against their common enemies, and to come down upon them in a literary thunderstorm. The poets planned a “poetical deviltry,” as they called it, and named their satirical poetry “Xenions.” The word Xenion originally meant a gift presented by a host to a stranger who enjoys his hospitality. The Roman poet Martial called his book of satirical epigrams _Xenia_; and, as Goethe and Schiller intended to make similar epigrammatical thrusts at Nicolai and other offenders, they adopted Martial’s expression and called their verses Xenions.[B] They agreed to publish all their Xenions together, and to regard them as their common property. [B] We prefer the Saxon form of the plural (_Xenions_) to the Latin form (_Xenia_), which is appropriate only as a name of Latin poetry. The first Xenions were very aggressive, but by and by they became more general and lost their personal character. There are among them many which are lofty and full of deep thought. It happened now and then that the authors of the Xenions hit the wrong man; but this, although to be regretted, was more excusable than the abuse with which their adversaries retorted.