The students from the Classics Department, coordinated by Associate Professor Dr. Maria Luiza Oancea (University of Bucharest), read passages from ancient Greek texts addressing the topics of law and lawlessness. The first chosen text was Plato's work "Crito" (50a-51c), which stages a dialogue between Socrates, condemned to death, and his friend Crito, shortly before the philosopher drinks the cup of poison. They discuss in Socrates' cell the principle of justice and the ways in which a person can face the injustice inflicted upon them by the City. Crito proposes to Socrates that he escape from prison and bribe the individuals who could denounce him: in this way, his family and disciples would be spared pain, and his enemies would be prevented from committing an injustice. From Socrates' perspective, this course of action would constitute a wrongdoing and an injustice committed to the laws of the city: the fact that he is wronged by the city does not imply that he also wrongs it. A citizen is not only subject to the law, but also a beneficiary of legal order from birth. The laws do not hold a citizen as a slave; one can leave the city if one does not agree with the governing order. Thus, Socrates remains consistent with his principles of justice, while death becomes the ultimate test. The second text, Xenophon's 'Memorabilia' IV, 4, focuses on the same figure of Socrates, at the moment of his death sentence. Xenophon, who was also his student, creates an apology for his teacher, giving various examples from his life and activity in the city, which show his respect for the law and public order, above the pressure of the crowd, highlighting the idea that the demos must remain under the rule of Law.
Assoc. Prof. Victoria Fonari (State University of Moldova) presented the paper "Anatomy of a Revolt for Peace: Law and Lawlessness on the Aristophanes - Vișniec Axis," which analyzed the dramatic and conceptual mechanisms that articulate the theme of peace at the fragile boundary between norm and subversion, tracing the temporal and aesthetic axis between Aristophanes' comedy "Lysistrata" and Matei Vișniec's contemporary rewrite, "Lysistrata, My Love", the first one published in the framework of the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, and the second one in 2022, at the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine. The concepts of strike as a "nullity of the social contract," natural law, hierarchical superiority, and bureaucratization were problematized.
