PhD c. Ovidiu Achim (University of Bucharest & Levant Institute) offered the presentation "Justus Lipsius (1547-1606): Quiet Knowledge Natural Law." In the context of the religious wars of the 16th century, the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) returned to ancient Stoic philosophy, where he would find answers to the challenges of his time. His texts, starting with „De Constantia” (1583), offer readers a synthesis of Zeno's philosophy, built in harmony with Christian truth, addressing essential issues both regarding the relationship between humans and the world, and the relationship between humans and themselves. For this, Lipsius reevaluates the foundations of knowledge, perception, sensory representations, as well as the concepts through which we understand reality. In his epistemological discourse, a special place is occupied by "natural law," situated at the intersection of the Christian tradition established by Romans 2:14-15 and the Neo-Stoic theory that humans possess by nature the seeds of knowledge of good and evil. In his epistemological discourse, a special place is occupied by the 'natural law,' situated at the intersection of the Christian tradition established by Romans 2:14-15 and the neo-Stoic theory according to which man possesses by nature the seeds of knowledge of good and evil.
Following that, the students from Classical Philology read passages in the original from the work 'Bibliotheke,' 52 by Patriarch Photius of Constantinople (9th century), guided by Dr. Ana-Maria Răducan (Levant Institute). An unusually massive work for Byzantine literature and the most important work of literary history of medieval Greek, it is conceived as a puzzle containing 280 different measurements and colors - the number of different Greek literary texts that were read and summarized by the patriarch in this work. These are both religious and secular writings, whose originals were written in a time span ranging from the fifth century BC to the ninth century AD, from Thucydides' "Peloponnesian War" alongside a theological work by Nichifor. These are texts that aren't part of the school curriculum, some of them being rare and only accessible to erudite and wealthy readers, and a few have only survived in this form. The passages read from chapter 52 tackled, in a balanced and objective way, the "file" on Messalian heresy – the provisions taken by local bishops at the behest of the patriarchs of Constantinople against those considered heretics – based on administrative documents from the late fourth to the sixth century.
Dr. Mona Sawy (University of Assiut, Egypt) and So Miyagawa (University of Tsukuba, Japan) presented the lecture "Studies on Coptic Texts - the Oaths," which highlighted the role of oaths, as well as curses, in Coptic society and religion, based on the authority of the law. In the unpublished collection of Coptic texts, the presence of God, saints, and secular authorities is invoked, and there is a very strong belief in supernatural powers. These oaths originate from ancient Egyptian practices, but there are also clear Greek and Roman influences. The analysis of these texts highlights the complex nature of Coptic legal and religious practices, in which the sacred dimension was intertwined with the legal and social spheres. An oath was not merely a means of confirming the truth, but also an act with a strong symbolic and religious significance, the violation of which could entail supernatural consequences. The study of these sources therefore provides an important perspective on the ways in which beliefs, legal norms, and everyday practices intersected within Coptic communities.
The last Ancient Greek seminar, led by Assoc. Prof. Andra Stoiculescu (University of Bucharest), focused on reading some passages from the letters of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. Letter 79, addressed to Simplicia, a noblewoman from Cappadocia, is an important testimony for understanding the relationships between Christianity, religious practices, and ideas about law and sin in Late Antiquity. The text shows the author’s concern with Christian behavior and how believers relate to truth, authority, and moral responsibility, while also providing an example of how epistolary writing could ironically deal with issues that had both religious and social implications. At the end of the event, Mr. Mark Donfried, General Director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, announced the topic and dates for the next edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Studies: September 20-25, 2027 - 'Solidarity and Division in Antiquity.' Associate Professor Dr. Maria Luiza Oancea (University of Bucharest) and Dr. Ana-Maria Răducan (Levant Institute), along with the participating students, expressed their gratitude and joy for the realization of this edition, also drawing the final conclusions of the School.
Closing Remarks by Dr. Mark Donfried, Director General of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy:
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Professors and Colleagues,
Dear Participants and Friends,
As we come to the conclusion of this sixth Annual Interdisciplinary School, I would like first of all to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has made these days in Potsdam so meaningful. In particular, I would like to thank President Emil Constantinescu, Dr. Cătălin-Ștefan Popa, the Levant Institute, the University of Bucharest, our distinguished professors and speakers, and, of course, all of you who have participated so actively in the discussions throughout this week.
When we opened this School, I suggested that although the civilizations we study are ancient, the questions they asked are not. After the discussions of these past days, I believe this has become even clearer. We have approached law and lawlessness through different civilizations, languages, religions and historical periods. Yet again and again, we have encountered questions that remain remarkably contemporary: What makes authority legitimate? What responsibilities accompany power? How do societies understand justice? And what happens when law and justice no longer coincide? Perhaps this is one of the greatest gifts that the study of antiquity can offer us: perspective. It reminds us that our own political and social arrangements are neither inevitable nor permanent. Other civilizations confronted the same fundamental human problems and developed very different answers. By understanding those answers, we become better equipped to question our own assumptions. And this is where scholarship itself becomes a form of cultural diplomacy.
During this School, different disciplines and intellectual traditions have met around the same table. Such dialogue does not require us to reach identical conclusions. Its value lies precisely in learning to understand how others arrive at different ones. I therefore hope that the conversations begun here will continue long after we leave Potsdam—in your research, your teaching, your institutions, and in the friendships and collaborations established during these days.
And as we close this sixth edition, it gives me great pleasure to already look ahead and officially announce our next gathering. The seventh Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental Studies will take place from 20–25 September 2027, under the theme: “Solidarity and Division in Antiquity.” It is a theme that follows naturally from many of the questions we have explored this year. If law asks how societies establish order, solidarity and division ask what holds societies together—and what causes them to break apart. Across the ancient world, communities were shaped by bonds of family, religion, citizenship, language and shared identity, but also by conflict, exclusion, inequality and competing loyalties. Once again, these are ancient questions with unmistakably contemporary resonance. I very much hope that all of you will join us again in 2027 to continue this extraordinary interdisciplinary conversation.
Let me conclude with the thought with which we began: The civilizations we study may be ancient. The questions they asked are not. And perhaps our responsibility is to ensure that their wisdom remains part of the conversation about the world we are building today. Thank you for an inspiring week. I wish you all a safe journey home, and I look forward to welcoming you again for “Solidarity and Division in Antiquity,” from 20–25 September 2027.
Thank you.
Closing remarks by Assoc. Prof. Maria Luiza Oancea, PhD, Scientific Director of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Languages
Dear professors and researchers,
Dear colleagues, students, and participants,
There we are at the end of the sixth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Languages! Over these days, in Potsdam and online, we have tried to look at Antiquity not as a distant, closed-off past, but as a living space of questions that, though formulated thousands of years ago, still speak to us directly. The theme of this edition – 'Law and Lawlessness in Antiquity' – has confronted us with one of the oldest and most challenging problems of civilization: what is law, and where does its authority come from? We started from nomos and dike, from the relationship between law, justice, and order, and we have explored this issue through ancient texts and traditions across multiple eras.
We started from the Greek world, from the problem of the relationship between law, justice, and community. We encountered Socrates in Crito, facing the issue of obedience to the law and the tension between individual conscience and the order of the city. Then, with Xenophon's Memorabilia, we followed the relationship between law, justice, and human conduct within the community. And through Aristophanes and his dialogue with Matei Vișniec's contemporary play, „Lysistrata, My Love”, we discussed rebellion, peace, and the relationship between positive law and the idea of justice. From here, our perspective expanded to other cultural spaces of Antiquity. We moved on to ancient Egypt, where concepts like Maat and Hepew offered us a new perspective on the relationship between cosmic order, norm, and community life. Then we arrived at Jewish, Syriac, and Coptic traditions, tracing how law, custom, tradition, and memory are passed down through language and literature.
Reading the text played a central role. We studied ancient Greek not just to translate words, but also to recover meanings, to understand the ideas about law and order behind the texts. We worked on texts by Plato and Xenophon, on texts from the New Testament, and on works by Christian authors like Saint Maximus the Confessor, Photius, and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. At the same time, we looked at the topic from the perspective of imagery and corporeality. Discussions about the representation of the imperial body and the corporeality of the Virgin Mary led us to the intersection of ius imaginum, canon law, and Christian theology. In this way, we saw how image and body can become spaces for negotiating authority, sacredness, and memory. Maybe this is one of the essential lessons of this School: the law is never just a text. Behind it lies a conception of man, community, good and evil, authority, freedom, and responsibility. And lawlessness does not just mean breaking a rule. Sometimes it can mean chaos and destruction; other times, however, history forces us to ask whether what is legal is always right and whether rebellion against an existing order can become the beginning of a new form of justice. It is precisely this tension that has made this year’s edition theme so fertile.
On the other hand, visiting the famous Museum Island reminded us that the study of Antiquity doesn’t just take place in libraries and seminar rooms. It continues, as we see, in museums too, in front of an artifact, an inscription, a statue, or a manuscript. Objects from the past transform abstract knowledge into a concrete encounter with the civilizations we try to understand. After all, this is the point of a school: not just to pass on knowledge, but also to create a community of knowledge. The fact that this community is meeting for the sixth time is perhaps the most beautiful achievement of this edition. I want to thank everyone who made this edition possible: the professors and researchers who accepted our invitation, colleagues who read, asked questions, and discussed, students, pupils, as well as everyone who supported the organization of this School. Special thanks once again go to the Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace, under the direct leadership of Mr. President Emil Constantinescu, as well as the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, represented by Mr. Mark Donfried, who played a crucial role in organizing this interdisciplinary meeting.
My dear friends, each edition of this School ends with a question that actually opens the next edition. If this year we talked about law and lawlessness, about the order that unites and the conflict that can tear it apart, next year we will take a step further. We will put at the center of our reflection another pair of fundamental concepts for understanding human societies: 'SOLIDARITY AND DIVISION.' As you can see, this theme naturally grew out of the discussions we had at this edition of our summer school. Because the law can unite, but it can also divide. A rule can create community, but it can also bring exclusion. Revolt can destroy an order, but it can also open the way to a new solidarity. From the Greek polis to religious communities, from empires and kingdoms to marginal groups and cultural communities, the history of Antiquity is, at its core, the history of people who tried to answer an essential question: What keeps us together and what tears us apart? What does solidarity mean in a city? How is the sense of belonging built? What role do religion, language, memory, and tradition play in forming a community?
We will look for these answers, as we have so far, through old texts and languages, history, philology, religion, art, and archaeology. Because Antiquity doesn’t just give us answers about the past. It also gives us tools to understand the present. I invite you, therefore, to keep not only what we have learned these days, but also what we have built together: the dialogue, curiosity, respect for the text and for others, as well as the joy of discovering together worlds that, although old, never stop speaking to us.
Today we conclude the sixth edition of the Annual School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Langueges, but we are not ending the dialogue. We will continue it in 2027, under the banner of solidarity and division. Thank you all for participating, for your patience, for your questions, for your ideas, and for this week of study and intellectual community. We warmly welcome you to the seventh edition of the annual interdisciplinary school of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Langueges. Until then, let us stay connected through what unites us: language, culture, memory, and the desire to understand each other.
Thank you, and I wish you all a safe journey!
