Plato Founds the Academy

Devastated by his teacher Socrates' execution, Plato eventually channels his grief into building something permanent. He establishes the Academy in a grove sacred to the hero Akademos, where students study philosophy, mathematics, and dialectic. It becomes the model for every university that follows. Plato's most famous student, Aristotle, will arrive around 367 BCE and study there for twenty years before founding his own school — and eventually tutoring a young Macedonian prince named Alexander.