Wikipedia Assignment #1

The article starts off with the history of Leonidas, who his brothers were, who he is descendant from and when he died. No one is very sure of his birth date but it is believed to be around 540 BC. The first part of this article is limited on information because there is not a lot of information to be had on Leonidas’ life prior to the Battle of Thermopylae. The article then goes on to talk about what Leonidas is most famous for, the Battle of Thermopylae. The information given in the second paragraph goes into detail of how Leonidas was involved in the Battle of Thermopylae, how it played out and how it ended.


1. The article has 1,243 words.
2. The search term I used on the Wikipedia website was "king leonidas". The exact title of the article was "Leonidas I".
3. The Disambiguation link shows several other links that reference the name Leonidas.
4. The Discussion page shows several threads of discussion varying from corrections that need to be made to the article, “protection” from “vandalisms” being needed for the article around the release of the movie “300”, and links to other sites regarding subjects in close relation to this particular article.
5. It looks like there have been over 500 changes to this article, the first dated December 17, 2004 and the last dated September 11, 2008.
6. There are no external links listed.
7. There are 3 references listed for this article and a note that there is text incorporated from Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (I think it is worth noting that at the top of this article there is a request for additional references).
8. There are no “Further Reading” or “See also” links for this article.


Would I recommend this article to others as a reference? I have would have to say yes and no. It is good for someone who is looking for a quick once over view of Leonidas I for just general information and his involvement in the Battle of Thermopylae, but not for someone who is looking for details on what is known about Leonidas’ whole life.