Magnum Promontorium

MAGNUM PROMONTORIUM(τὸ μέγα ἀκρωτήριον, Ptol. 7.2.7; Marcian, Peripl. p. 28), a promontory which forms the southern termination of the Chersonesus Aurea, in India extra Gangem, on the western side of the Sinus Magnus. Its modern name is C. Romania. Some have supposed that the Prom. Magn. represents another cape, either considerably to the NW., now called C. Patani. Ptolemy's account of these far Eastern places is so doubtful, that it is impossible to feel sure of the evidence for or against the position of any place in the Aurea Chersonesus.

MAGNUM PROMONTORIUMa promontory on the west coast of Lusitania (Mela, 3.1.6), probably the same which Strabo (3. p. 151) and Ptolemy (Ptol. 2.5.1) call τὸ Βαρβάριον ακρον, near the mouth of the Tagus. The passage in Strabo is corrupt; but according to the correction of Coray, approved of by Groskurd, the promontory was 210 stadia from the mouth of the Tagus, which makes it correspond with C. Espichel. Pliny also calls it Magnum or Olisiponense, from the town in its vicinity; but he strangely confounds it with the Prom. Artabrum, on the NW. of the peninsula (4.21. s. 35).