Iria

IRIA (Εἰρία, Ptol.: Eth. Iriensis: Voghera), a considerable town of the interior of Liguria, mentioned both by Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as in the Itineraries, which place it 10 miles from Dertona, on the road to Placentia. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7; Ptol. 3.1.35; Itin. Ant. p. 288; Tab. Pent. ) This distance agrees with the site of the modern town of Voghera, which appears to have been called in the middle ages Vicus Iriae, a name gradually corrupted into its modern appellation. It is situated on the little river Staffora, which would seem to have borne in ancient times the same name with the city: it is called Hiria or Iria by P. Diaconus, who tells us that the emperor Majorianus was put to death on its banks. (Hist. Miscell. 16. p. 554.) Ptolemy includes Iria, as well as Dertona, in the territory of the Taurini; but this would seem to be certainly a mistake: that people could never have extended so far to the eastward. An inscription (of which the reading is, however, a matter of controversy) has Coloniae Foro Juli Iriensium,f rom which it would seem that Iria, as well as the neighbouring Dertona, became a colony after the death of Caesar, and obtained the name of Forum Julii; but this is very doubtful. No other trace is found either of the name or the colony. (Maffei, Mus. Ver. p. 371. 4; Murat. Inscr. p. 1108. 4; Orell. Inscr. 73.)