27 JUNE 1931, Page 3

Plato's Academy The Times has published interesting details of the

excavations now being made, at an Athenian benefactor's expense, on the site of Plato's Academy at Athens. The philosopher, it will be remembered, was ransomed from slavery in Aegina by a friend who refused repay-, ment. With the sum Plato bought part of the grove of the legendary hero Academus in or about the year B.C. 388, and there lectured to eager disciples from all parts of the Hellenic world, among whom for a time was Aristotle. It would be unwise to expect too much from the digging in the way of sculpture or ornament. But the main outlines of the building—the most in- fluential centre of philosophic thought that the world has known—may be made clear.