 In the succeeding decade, Schiller authored plays and other literary works, composed dozens of poems, and authored two major histories, one of the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish and one of the Thirty Years’ War. As his fame grew, Schiller was appointed professor of history at the University of Jena where he lectured on both history and aesthetics. The Robbers’ message of liberation from political corruption had meanwhile been so influential that the new French Republic made Schiller an honorary citizen in 1792. But like many of his contemporaries, Schiller’s enthusiasm for the French Revolution turned to horror as the Terror began. His political disillusionment was coupled with both a serious illness and a crisis of self-confidence in his playwriting. Schiller had already experimented with philosophical prose, but this crisis inspired him to turn his attention fully to philosophy in the hopes of both recovering his health through quiet contemplation and of gaining philosophical insights that would reignite his literary talents.  [2]  A small pension provided by the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar made his temporary withdrawal from the theater and academic life financially possible, and it was during this period that most of Schiller’s remarkable theoretical output took place.