Schiller completed the `ROBBERS` in the autumn of 1780, which he had started writing in 1779. In Greece, the literal translation of the German die Rauber = the ROBBERS has been established, which in my opinion does not convey the meaning and essence of the work. Schiller's ROBBERS are as much `robbers` as the Greek klephts of 1821 were `thieves`.

A closer translation in Greek that captures the spirit and meaning of the work would be the designation `the rebels`, `the anarchists`, `the insurgents`, rather than `the robbers`. These are the ones described in Romance languages as libertines, which in Greek is expressed with the term eleytherofrones (free thinkers).

As informed by his friend Wilhelm Petersen, Schiller did not write the ROBBERS all at once. Before completing it as a cohesive whole, after dozens of text changes, he worked on various scenes and monologues, which he recited to his friends, either at school or during their walks in the surrounding forests.

By the end of 1780, he had completed the work ready for publication. `We will create a book that will make the executioner burn it whole,` he tells his friends when he reads them excerpts. Since no publisher is willing to publish it, he borrows 150 gold coins and publishes it himself anonymously in June 1781, in 800 copies.

He sends seven copies to the publisher Svan in Mannheim, who, however, refuses to publish it because, as he explains, `the work contains scenes that I, as a publisher, consider inappropriate to sell to an honest and respectable audience.` He did recommend, however, to the Director of the Mannheim Theater, Dalberg, to stage it in the theater and informed Schiller about the possibility of a staging, emphasizing that `you must clean it from its filth before the performance.`

Schiller agrees to tone down the harshness of the text and from August to October 1781, he deletes, corrects, and smooths out the work, which premieres at the Mannheim theater on January 13, 1782.