Iapygium
or
Salentīnum, Promontorium. A famous promontory of Italy,
at the southern extremity of Iapygia, now Capo di Leuca. When the art of navigation was yet in
its infancy, this great headland presented a conspicuous landmark to mariners bound from the
ports of Greece to Sicily, of which they always availed themselves (
Thuc.vi. 44). It formed, with the opposite Cape of Lacinium, the entrance to the
Tarentine Gulf.