Plato duly returned to Athens to resume his life in the ivory tower of the Academy. He did, however, invite Dion, now permanently exiled from his home country, to join him in the Academy, which the expatriate now did.[15] Dion did not remain sedentary, but traveled widely, making friends and influencing people.[16] Inevitably, however, some of the plots and intrigues that proliferated in the court of Syracuse followed Dion to Athens, and the Academy became less of an ivory tower than it had been. For if there was one person who had the intelligence, the connections, the wealth, the influence, the military prowess, and the political ambition to bring down the young tyrant of Syracuse, it was Dion.
Plato had now made two trips to Syracuse, the most powerful city in the Greek world. Both had been fiascos. Plato’s friendship with Dion, one of his most gifted and influential followers, continued to involve him in political affairs and negotiations. The sacred obligations of friendship haunted Plato like some tragic curse. Dion was motivated like never before to bring responsible government to Syracuse and Magna Graecia. He would not let an indecisive and vacillating tyrant stand in his way or deny him his own destiny.
The conflict between Dion and Dionysius II would not go away. Dion was determined to return to Syracuse and to do his best to reform the government of a weak and vacillating tyrant. He saw Plato as his best ally in the struggle. Plato, for his part, was committed to helping his follower Dion to the best of his ability. Dion knew Syracuse, its leaders, its people, its strengths and weaknesses, better than anybody. The city was the center of power and influence in the central Mediterranean. It was now, after the demise of the Athenian empire, the most powerful city-state in the Greek world. It was the one city that could stand up to Carthage, with its own empire in the western Mediterranean. Plato’s life and influence were inextricably bound up with the life and influence of Dion of Syracuse, for better or worse.
[15] Plutarch Dion 16.1.
[16] Plutarch Dion 16.6-9.