tory, while many call it the Promontory of Olisipo, from
the city[1] near it. This spot forms a dividing line in the
land, the sea, and the heavens. Here ends one side[2] of
Spain; and, when we have doubled the promontory, the
front of Spain begins. (22.) On one side of it lie the North
and the Grallic Ocean, on the other the "West and the Atlantic.
The length of this promontory has been estimated by some
persons at sixty miles, by others at ninety. A considerable
number of writers estimate the distance from this spot to
the Pyrenees at 1250 miles ; and, committing a manifest
error, place here the nation of the Artabri, a nation
that never[3] was here. Per, making a slight change in the
name, they have placed at this spot the Arrotrebæ, whom
we have previously spoken of as dwelling in front of the
Celtic Promontory.
Mistakes have also been made as to the more celebrated rivers. Prom the Minius, which we have previously men- tioned, according to Varro, the river Æminius[4] is distant 200 miles, which others[5] suppose to be situate elsewhere, and called Limsea. By the ancients it was called the "River of Oblivion," and it has been made the subject of many fabulous stories. At a distance of 200 miles from the Durius is the Tagus, the Munda[6] lying between them. The Tagus is famous, for its golden sands[7]. At a distance
- ↑ On the site of which the present city of Lisbon stands.
- ↑ See note 18 in the preceding page.
- ↑ See note 18.
- ↑ See note 14 in the preceding page.
- ↑ Among these is Pomponius Mela, who confounds the river Limia, mentioned in the last chapter, with the Æminius, or Agueda.
- ↑ Now the river Mondego.
- ↑ See B. xxxiii. c. 21.
a very curious error. He mentions a promontory called Artabrum as the headland at the N. W. extremity of Spain; the coast on the one side of it looking to the north and the Grallic Ocean, on the other to the west and the Atlantic Ocean. But he considers this promontory to be the west headland of the estuary of the Tagus, and adds, that some called it Magnum Promontorium, or the "Great Promontory," and others Olisiponense, from the city of Olisipo, or Lisbon. He assigns, in fact, all the west coast of Spain, down to the mouth of the Tagus, to the north coast, and, instead of being led to detect his error by the resemblance of name between his Artabrum Promontorium and his Arrotrebse (the Artabri of his predecessors, Strabo and Mela), he perversely finds fault with those who had placed above the promontory Artabrum, a people of the same name who never were there.
