In 367 b.c., when he was 60 years old and at the height of his fame as head of the Academy, Plato heard from his friend Dion of Syracuse, who invited Plato to come and teach the young Dionysius II, who had recently become King of Syracuse. Plato accepted the invitation because he still retained his old wish to become actively involved in politics, to be a man of action as well as a "mere man of words." But Dion soon got into trouble because of political intrigues in Syracuse, and he was banished from the country. Plato again returned to Athens, only to return to Syracuse again in 361 b.c. to help Dionysius II rule fairly and equitably, put the kingdom under a rule of law, and eschew the temptations of tyranny. Plato failed in this endeavor, and he soon found himself in personal danger. After escaping Syracuse, Plato returned home to Athens; he never again meddled directly in political affairs, although several members of his faculty did actively aid Dion's military expedition against Syracuse (Sicily) in 357 b.c., an expedition that overthrew the tyranny there.
By this time, Plato had completed most of the writings for which we remember him, but late in his life, he was still intrigued by the problem of how to accomplish a legislative body that might serve to put into action the ideas and the ideals he had conversed about in such works as the Republic. Aristotle, who became a student at the Academy in 367 b.c., tells us that Plato and his students were conversing about the problem of "laws," a recorded system for governing a given state, when Plato died in 348 or 347 b.c.
