City
Iadera
Zadar · Zara
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Iadera, today Zadar on the Croatian coast, began as an Iron Age settlement of the Liburnians and grew into the leading city of their region in the province of Dalmatia. Its people fought for Caesar against Pompey, and the town probably became a Roman colony under him, while Augustus paid for its walls and towers. Stones from its forum are still built into the church of Saint Donatus. Earlier writers called it Iader, and the longer form spread from the second century. The Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus later explained the name as Latin for 'it already was'.