Alicante Early History

In 201 BC the Romans captured the city from the nearby Iberian Tossal Manises known as Leucante or Leucanto (Lucentum Latinization was an original name that only existed on maps Romans), which had an acceptable river-sea port; this was the first site of what, with time, would become Alicante.

Late Visigothic Period

The silting of the river that flows near the town of Leucante/Lucentum is no longer suitable as a port, and settlement is surrounded by marshes and swamps and unhealthy malaria, for which population gradually shifted toward the foothills of Benacantil, giving, instead, the true origin of the town.

Islamic

Between 718 and December 4, 1248, the city fell under Muslim domination, to be called Al-Laqant or Medina Laqant, “old town” (note that the name is Valencian Alacant). During this period, the city followed the fates of Al-Andalus, and after the breakup of the Caliphate of Cordoba, it belonged to the Taifa of Denia and Murcia.

Christian Conquest

Under the treaty of Cazola (Soria, 1179), between Alfonso VII of Castile and Alfonso II of Aragon, the southern border of Aragon was set at the line joining Biar, Castalla, Jijona, and Calpe.

Therefore, Alicante belonged to the Spanish zone of expansion. In the year 1243 the ruler of the Taifa of Murcia, Muhamad ben Hud, signed the pact with Alcaraz Don Alfonso, who later became King Alfonso X the Wise, by which the Muslim kingdom of Murcia put a protectorate under Castilians.

Although, in principle, it was to repopulate the city, the lack of sufficient Christian settlers who came, economically advised the continuance of the Muslim population. However, the governor of Alicante, Mardanis Zayyad ben, did not accept the pact and was forced to leave in 1247, when it the Alicante Spanish sovereignty began.

The military conquest was completed on December 4, 1248, with the Castilian king’s troops, commanded by his son, Alfonso, Alfonso X the future el Sabio. The Almizra Treaty signed in 1244 between the kings of Castile and Aragon set limits to the expansion of their respective domains in the line of Biar to Villajoyosa.

History

The origins of urban settlement in the garden and surrounding towns go back to Alicante Ibers. There is archaeological evidence of Phoenician trade factories close by (the Elche Palm Grove of the Baths of the Queen in Campell). Greek settlers in Foce, in Asia Minor, took as a reference to Mount Akra Benacantil, calling it Leuka (peak white), and could be the first to assess the potential settlement as its top military, although it is not certain until construction of Amilcar Barca stood there, its main encampment, just before the Second Punic War.