Academy

The Academy is a military building featured in Age of Empires.

Game Info
The Academy allows the player to train three elite infantry units which are the Hoplite, Phalanx, and Centurion. The three elite units are fairly expensive, but is worth their cost as they form a solid core with which to assault an enemy settlement. Researching Architecture in the Academy increases hit points and decreases construction time. The Academy is available from Bronze Age onwards. Only Hoplite is available for Egyptians and Babylonians
 * Units that can be created here
 * Hoplite
 * Phalanx
 * Centurion

Real Info
The Academy was the Greek equivalent of a school. Students, usually only free men and favored slaves, received an education at the Academy. Subjects of study included the typical fare of schools, but also politics, athletics, and military training.

The most rigorous of the Greek Academies were those of Sparta where boys were taken from their parents at an early age and educated in a military environment. The Academy prepared the individual for service to the state as a citizen and a soldier in the phalanx. In one of the remarkable encounters of history, the future Alexander the Great was educated at the Academy of Aristotle.