So now we come upon Plato, the man who wanted to be a politician and had his hopes dashed when he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Associated with the right wing aristocracy that tried to gain ascendancy during the period of the thirty tyrants, Plato’s opportunities were cut off when the new Democracy rose again in Athens, turning him into an anachronism. Frustrated at this turn of events, he travelled to Syracuse in an attempt to become the tutor for Dionysus the Elder. But Dionysus wanted sycophants instead of teachers, making Plato’s political theories a bad match for the situation. After coming close to an untimely end, Plato returned to Athens in 387 B.C. and founded the Academy, a school of philosophy and political science.
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