LERINA
LERINA and LERON. Strabo (p. 185) says: “After the Stoechades are Planasia and Leron (
ἡ Πλανασία καὶ Λήρων), which are inhabited; and in Leron there is also a Leroum of Leron, and Leron is in front of Antipolis.” (
Ańtibes.) Pliny (
3.5) has “Lero, et Lerina adversus Antipolim.” Ptolemy (
2.10.21) places Lerone (
Ληρώνη) before the mouth of the
Var. Lerina once had a town named Vergoanum (Pliny). The Maritime Itin. places “Lero et Lerinas insulae” 11 M. P. from Antipolis.
These two islands are the
Lérins, off the coast of the French department of
Var. Strabo's Planasia is supposed to be Lerina, because it is flat; Leron must then be the larger island, called
Sainte Marguerite; and D'Anville conjectures that the monastery dedicated to Sainte Marguerite took the place of the Leroum of Lero, which is mentioned by Strabo.
The position of these two small islands is fixed more accurately by the Itin. than by the geographers. Lerina, from which the modern name
Lérins comes, is very small; it is called
St. Honorat, from a bishop of Arles in the fifth century, who was also a saint.
[
G.L]
