Plato, upon his return from Syracuse to Athens in 387 BCE, establishes the innovative Academy, an institution devoted to research and instruction in philosophy and the sciences.
He plans to have a single center for teaching and research that will draw together experts in all branches of learning and that will include younger scholars to give continuity to its work.
According to tradition, Akademus, a local hero of the Trojan War, had owned the garden long ago.
His former garden, or olive grove, was therefore called “akademia” before Plato established his Academy there.
In addition to Plato, the mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus is a senior member of the faculty.
Plato emphasizes geometry in and uses the five regular polyhedrons to explain the scientific phenomena of the universe.
The Academy, where scholars conduct rigorous research with their students, may be considered among the first universities.
