In 387 or 386 b.c., Plato returned to Athens and founded the Academy, which was intended to serve as a school for future leaders of state. Plato apparently planned the curriculum of the Academy (primarily courses in philosophy, science, and law) to provide for the training of the ideal philosopher-rulers he had described in the Republic; we may see the Academy as being the first university. The Academy rapidly became the intellectual center of Greek life. According to Aristotle, who studied with Plato for almost 20 years, Plato lectured without notes, probably engaging his students in conversations after the fashion of his own mentor, Socrates. As the fame of the Academy grew, it attracted many brilliant thinkers to join its faculty, and we are told that Plato sent many of those faculty to help various city-states and colonies to form legislative bodies.
