Plato was an asshole

So Plato kicked off higher education when he founded the academy in Athens. His teacher was Socrates and his student was Aristotle. He was also a total asshole. Imagine if you are a scholar, and you come up with a valid theory that explains the world - that of atomism, and someone of the stature of Plato totally throws shade your way. That is what happened to Leucippus and his student, Democritus. Plato and Aristotle totally rejected their ideas of Atomism. Plato's reasons for this dick move? It was not poetic or aesthetic enough. While nearly all of Plato's work has survived to our day, Democritus has almost been erased from history - to the point that it is a matter of debate if he even existed. Although he came up with the idea of atomism, we know about his ideas through the work of Leucippus, of which only fragments survive. Aristotle's criticisms of Democritus is actually more illuminating about the ideas of Leucippus and Democritus than their own works. Democritus is considered the father of modern science. Plato did everything to suppress Democritus, including attempting to burn his books. While he mentions all the other philosophers at that time, Democritus only very rarely comes up. Plato actually goes as far as to say "Democritus is not well versed in the matters of knowledge". By and large, Democritus was shunned in Athens.  It did not help matters that Democritus was somewhat of a recluse, and himself said, "I came to Athens and no one knew me." Just, so sad. :(