Road station
Valentia
Valence
Valentia is Valence on the Rhône, and its name is purely Latin, meaning strength, not Celtic. It was founded as a Roman colony in the land of the Segovellauni, under Caesar or, as more recent research argues, under Augustus. Lying on a navigable river and on the road from Vienne to Orange, it became a busy junction; aerial photographs have revealed its street plan and the surveyed fields around it. The Roman historian Ammianus ranks it with Vienne and Arles among the leading cities of the region, and in 354 the emperor Constantius came here from Arles.