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 (Plin. Nat. 3.5) has Lero, et Lerina adversus Antipolim.Ptolemy (Ptol. 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 insulae11 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 Lérinscomes, is very small; it is called St. Honorat, from a bishop of Arles in the fifth century, who was also a saint.
[G.L]