The ancient Platonic Academy was founded by Plato in Athens in the year, 387 BC. This was the same school in which, the other famous ancient Greek philosopher and Plato’s disciple, Aristotle studied in. Aristotle spent 20 years in the Academy, learning philosophy, before founding his own school of philosophy, the Lyceum. The Platonic Academy kept functioning all through the Hellenistic period as a dubious school until it was closed down in the year, 83 BC. Even though numerous scholars continued to preach philosophy in the city of Athens in the Roman era, it was not before the year AD 410, when it was revived, that the Academy became a center of learning for the concept of Neo-Platonism. The Academy then went on for 119 years more, before being shut down by Justinian I under that pretext of posing a threat to Christianity.
Even before the site was turned into an academy for philosophical education, it comprised of a grove of holy olive trees which were dedicated to the Greek God of wisdom, Athena. The site was supposed to have been located outside the city walls of Athens. The location of the Platonic Academy was precisely 1 mile from the gates of Athens. It has been recovered in the 20th century after a considerable amount of excavation.
Though the Academy was completely exclusive, it did not charge any sort of membership fees at least during Plato’s time there. It is because of this that the Academy did not possess that aura of a formal school, having no sort of formal curriculum or distinction between teachers and students. There existed, however, a visible distinction between the senior and junior members of the club. Above the entrance to the Platonic Academy, a phrase was engraved which said, “Let None but the Geometers Enter Here”. This immediately pointed out to the fact that the Academy was a sacred place of education.
Description: After returning from his travels to Italy and Sicily, Plato founded his Platonic Academy in the city of Athens. It was in this school that many of Greece’s philosophers studied and developed, the most famous amongst them being the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle.