Aristotle, a graduate of the Academy's program to train young men for a political career and to provide advice to rulers, had joined the court of Hermias of Atarneus, tyrant of Assus in Ionia, following Plato's death in 347 BCE.

Xenocrates, a friend and classmate of Aristotle's, has accompanied Aristotle to Asia Minor, where Aristotle has established a Platonic school, but the Persians capture and kill Hermias in 342 BCE, necessitating his return to Greece.