The Romans establish the city of Valentia Edetanorum on the site of a former Iberian town, by the river Turia.
Situated in eastern Spain about one hundred and ninety miles (three hundred kilometers) southeast of present Madrid in a fertile plain, the new city is cut off from the rest of Spain by the mountainous rim of the Meseta.
About two thousand Roman colonists are settled there in 138 BCE during the rule of consul Decimus Junius Brutus Galaico, who, according to the Roman historian Florus, transferred the soldiers who had fought under him to this province, Edetania.
This is a typically Roman city in its conception, strategically located near the sea on a river island crossed by the Via Augusta, the imperial road which connects the province to Rome, the capital of the empire.
Modern Valencia is today the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona.
