His scattered work comprises essays, short stories and prose poetry, noted for their cultural references, but made little impact on Romanian literature.

As a journalist, Caion prioritized scandals, accusing Caragiale of plagiarism and losing the subsequent celebrity trial of 1902, before partly recanting and winning the retrial.

Originally conceived as a literary supplement for the daily Românul, it became a tribune of Macedonski's Romanian Symbolist movement, and helped discover George Bacovia, the celebrated modern poet.

A contradictory figure, Caion was equated with infamy and ridicule in the Romanian context, and his evidently unsubstantiated allegations against Caragiale have traditionally puzzled literary historians.

Interested in the Roman Empire, he published with Literatorul a comparative biography of Julius Caesar and Augustus, republished as a book by Carol Göbl of Bucharest.

[4] Also in 1898, Ionescu-Caion completed his adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver, published by the Adevărul collection Biblioteca Enciclopedică as Trei ani de suferință: O călătorie curioasă ("Three Years of Suffering: A Strange Voyage").

According to Anglicist Mihaela Mudure, Caion, "a famous journalist and a minor writer", was thus the first Romanian to publish an essay on Swift, albeit one that was "not very sophisticated"; she also notes that the translation added a sexual twist to some of Gulliver's adventures.

[2] A "Constantin Ionescu", whom literary historian Victor Durnea tentatively identifies as the future Caion, was arrested by Romanian Police on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest, during the breakup of a student nationalist rally (September 13, 1894).

[8] Bibesco, the Prince's destitute son, continued to employ Caion as his defender and co-author: in 1901, they published an ampler work on the subject of Bibescu family grievances against the modern Romanian establishment.

[16] Caion also affiliated with the eclectic journal Noua Revistă Română, where he published historical documents of dubious authenticity[17] and, in 1902, the essay Din umbră.

[19] Literary historian Tudor Vianu believes that Caion was especially infuriated when Caragiale's magazine, Moftul Român, made a public mockery of his Secessionist prose poem.

Parodying Caion, he suggested that the young poet carry on writing a "lyrical-decadent-symbolist-mystical-capillary-secessionist" novel about a hairdressers' art society, whose members glue strands of hair onto canvasses or carve soap into human figures.

[30] Forța Morală expanded on the initial accusations, claiming to have discovered an entire history of plagiarism in Caragiale's writings (from Victorien Sardou to Alfred Duru).

[31] Following Macedonski's intercession, Caion was also supported by the historian Grigore Tocilescu, who made Caragiale the sole topic of his Romanian Atheneum conference (January 24, 1902).

[17] Caragiale's legal representative was the fellow writer Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, who systematically disproved Caion's allegations, and noted that the absentee defendant was guilty of numerous forgeries.

The jury selection was a laborious process: Caion's lawyer Danielopol recused writers Nicolae Iorga and Ovid Densusianu, alleging that all Romanian literati had a vested interest to defend plagiarism.

[8] The theme of decadence continued to fuel Caion's essays: in Carmen magazine (September 1902), he covered Castanier's Lotus du Gange, implicitly advertising the book's lewd content and titillating illustrations.

[42] Românul Literar was a voice of anti-nationalist and anti-traditionalist sentiment, rejecting the school formed around Sămănătorul magazine, and promoting the Symbolists; its agenda has been summarized as "anti-Sămănătorist", and in step with modern French literature.

[42] Other than poetry and fiction, Românul Literar hosted literary and scientific essays, including ones by Caion, Ținc, Ioan Tanoviceanu, Orest Tafrali and others.

[49] Around 1907, Caion's paper was hosting poems by the young Symbolist author George Bacovia (including "Sonnet" and "Pulvis") and art chronicles by Theodor Cornel.

Early signs of this conflict showed up during the Caragiale trials, when Caion and Macedonski nominated Sămănătorul founding figure George Coșbuc as another successful plagiarist.

In 1905, his newspaper joyfully announced that Ștefan Octavian Iosif (whom he called by his Magyarized legal name, István Gábor József) had been expelled from the Romanian academic scholarship program.

[54] According to Caion, Octavian Goga's father-in-law, politician Partenie Cosma, was "the tyrant of Transylvania",[55] and Coșbuc's ally, the literary chronicler Ilarie Chendi, was a "Romanianized" Hungarian, with little authority in local literature.

Transylvanian political leader Alexandru Vaida-Voevod noted that the neologistic dialect favored in the Old Kingdom was symptomatic, since "Caion and the likes" were popularly identified as the literary professionals.

The fragment Înrâuriri franceze mai vechi ("Older French Influences") saw print in the "encyclopedic magazine" Ilustrația, whose director was Nicolae G. Rădulescu-Niger, the comedic poet.

[13] From August 17, 1918, Ionescu-Caion put out the magazine Cronicarul ("The Chronicler"), which enlisted contributions from noted Germanophile writers, such as Gala Galaction and Duiliu Zamfirescu.

[76][77] Noting that Caion had entered press history with a mârlănie ("yokel's deed"), Pleșu described Ziua journalism as partisanship and "hysteria", assessing that Romania was going through "an epileptic fit".

The work focuses on the 1901 stock market panic and its political consequences in Romania; Caragiale (as Gearacale) and Caion (Crayon) appear alongside scheming politicians or journalists—Take Ionescu, George D. Pallade, Luigi Cazzavillan—and the runaway embezzler Andrei Vizanti.

The legal professionals' magazine Curierul Judiciar and lawyer-editor Octav Minar published the court records in its Biblioteca marilor procese ("Great Trials Library"), May–June 1924.

[80] Theater scholar Cristian Stamatoiu finds Delavrancea's plea not just a "shattering" proof of erudition, but also a guide to understanding the issues of artistic personality and intellectual property.