Diodorus ascribes Lucentum's foundation to the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar Barcas.
As a Mediterranean and Iberian commercial center, it had trading contacts with Greece, Phoenicia,  and the southern Iberian city of Tartessos, absorbing some of their influences.
This unique mixture gave rise to a culture called Contestani by Pliny the Elder and Strabo.
Its ruins include various distinctly Carthaginian features.

The Punic town was known to the Greeks as the "White Cliff" or "White Fort", variously given as Ákra Leuká (Greek: Ἄκρα Λευκά), Ákra Leukḗ (Ἄκρα Λευκή), and Leukḕ Ákra (Λευκὴ Ἄκρα).
Livy translated the second sense of the Greek name into Latin, calling the settlement Castrum Album.
The Greek probably translated the site's Punic name, although some prefer to imagine it transcribes an Iberian placename involving the words lug ("water") and cant ("cliff").

The city enjoyed its peak between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, and the majority of the city's remains bear a Roman stamp.
The town was refounded as Lucentum (from Latin lucere, "Place of Light" or "Bright Place") after P. Cornelius Scipio conquered the area in the course of the Second Punic War.
Over the years it gained a thoroughly Roman character, complete with baths, forums, temples, sewers, etc.
It was one of the major cities of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis.

It entered into a decline in the 2nd century and was effectively abandoned by the end of the 3rd century.
The chief cause of this decline was competition from the neighboring city of Ilici (today's Elche), which had better water and land communications and began to usurp Lucentum's trade.
Eventually, the settlement was completely depopulated, the site used only for a Muslim cemetery during the 10th and 11th centuries.
Diodorus ascribes Lucentum's foundation to the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar Barcas. As a Mediterranean and Iberian commercial center, it had trading contacts with Greece, Phoenicia,  and the southern Iberian city of Tartessos, absorbing some of their influences. This unique mixture gave rise to a culture called Contestani by Pliny the Elder and Strabo. Its ruins include various distinctly Carthaginian features.
The Punic town was known to the Greeks as the "White Cliff" or "White Fort", variously given as Ákra Leuká (Greek: Ἄκρα Λευκά), Ákra Leukḗ (Ἄκρα Λευκή), and Leukḕ Ákra (Λευκὴ Ἄκρα). Livy translated the second sense of the Greek name into Latin, calling the settlement Castrum Album. The Greek probably translated the site's Punic name, although some prefer to imagine it transcribes an Iberian placename involving the words lug ("water") and cant ("cliff").
The city enjoyed its peak between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, and the majority of the city's remains bear a Roman stamp. The town was refounded as Lucentum (from Latin lucere, "Place of Light" or "Bright Place") after P. Cornelius Scipio conquered the area in the course of the Second Punic War. Over the years it gained a thoroughly Roman character, complete with baths, forums, temples, sewers, etc. It was one of the major cities of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. 
It entered into a decline in the 2nd century and was effectively abandoned by the end of the 3rd century. The chief cause of this decline was competition from the neighboring city of Ilici (today's Elche), which had better water and land communications and began to usurp Lucentum's trade. Eventually, the settlement was completely depopulated, the site used only for a Muslim cemetery during the 10th and 11th centuries.
Lucentum