Romawa sun mayar da hankalin Falasdinu zuwa yankin Bahar Rum, kuma hakan ya haifar da kafuwar birnin bakin teku na Caesarea Maritima (Girkanci: Parálios Kaisáreia; Παράλιος Καισάρεια), wanda kuma aka fi sani da Caesarea-Palaestina (ko ‘Caesarea ta Falasdinu’), da kuma ci gaban da ya samu cikin sauri da ban mamaki. Na tsawon ƙarni, Caesarea-Palaestina ta zama babban birnin Falasdinu kuma ɗaya daga cikin manyan cibiyoyin al'adu a yankin Bahar Rum, inda ta maye gurbin manyan biranen nan biyu, Athens da Alexandria. Asali ƙauye ne na Falasdinawa/Finikawa a bakin tekun Bahar Rum, amma daga baya Caesarea-Palaestina ta zama ɗaya daga cikin mazaunan Romawa guda huɗu (coloniae) na tsoffin sojoji da aka sallama a lardin Syria-Palaestina (Butcher 2003: 230), kuma an sanya mata suna don girmama Augustus Caesar.

The Romans reoriented Palestine towards the Mediterranean region and this resulted in the establishment and subsequent spectacular rise of the coastal city of Caesarea Maritima (Greek: Parálios Kaisáreia; Παράλιος Καισάρεια), which was also famously known as Caesarea-Palaestina (or ‘Caesarea of Palestine’). For centuries Caesarea-Palaestina would serve as the capital of Palestine and one of the most important cultural centres in the Mediterranean region, in effect replacing the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria. Originally a Palestinian/Phoenician village on the Mediterranean coast, Caesarea-Palaestina became one of four Roman settlements (coloniae) for demobilised veterans in the province of Syria-Palaestina (Butcher 2003: 230), named in honour of Augustus Caesar.

Birnin Roma da babbar tashar jiragen ruwanta an fadada su sosai ta hannun sarkin Roma mai biyayya a Yahudiya da ke Falasdinu, Hirudus Mai Girma (Girkanci:

The Roman city and its major harbour were spectacularly expanded by the Roman client king of Judaea in Palestine, Herod the Great (Greek:

Horodos), wanda ya yi mulki daga shekara ta 37 zuwa ta 4 kafin haihuwar Annabi Isa. Herod, wanda kakanninsa 'yan kabilar Idumawa ne (watakila asalinsu Larabawan Nabatawa) waɗanda suka karɓi addinin Yahudanci na Hellenanci, ya shahara da babban shirinsa na gine-gine, ciki har da gina tashar jirgin ruwa a Kaisariya Maritima, haikalin irin na Girka a Urushalima ('Haikalin Herod') da kagara a Masada.

Horodos), who ruled from 37 to 4 BC. Herod, whose ancestors were Idumites (possibly of Nabataean Arab origins) who had converted to Hellenistic Judaism, became known for his colossal building programme, including the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the Greekstyle temple in Jerusalem (‘Herod’s Temple’) and the fortress at Massada.

Ya kuma gina ko ya sake gina wasu katanga na soja da dama a kan hanyar Via Maris.

He also constructed or rebuilt several military forts along the Via Maris.

Gina tashar da wani babban tashar jiragen ruwa a Caesarea Maritima ya nuna raguwar muhimmancin Joppa (Jaffa) a matsayin tsohuwar tashar jiragen ruwa. Shekara biyu bayan mutuwar Herod, Caesarea Maritima ta zama cibiyar wani gwamnan Roma – shugaban yankin gudanarwa – tun daga shekara ta 6 AD.

The construction of a massive port at Caesarea Maritima signalled the decline of Joppa (Jaffa) in importance as a historic harbour. Two years after the death of Herod, Caesarea Maritima became the seat of a Roman prefect – head of an administrative area – beginning in 6 AD.

Domin a bambanta Caesarea Maritima da Caesarea Philippi (ko Caesarea Paneas) – sunan da ya sauya zuwa Banyas na Larabci a yau a Tuddan Golan – da kuma Caesarea Cappadocia (a yau Turkiyya), Caesarea‑Maritima ta shahara a ko'ina cikin yankin Bahar Rum da duniyar Kiristoci da sunan Caesarea-Palaestina. Martabar makarantarta, ɗakin karatunta da malaman Kirista ta yi tashe a ƙarni na 3 zuwa na 6, domin ta maye gurbin Alkahira... ta zama, a zahiri, babbar cibiyar ilimi a Gabashin Bahar Rum, tana maye gurbin Alexandria.

To distinguish Caesarea Maritima from Caesarea Philippi (or Caesarea Paneas) – a name which mutated into modern Arab Banyas in the Golan Heights – and Caesarea Cappadocia (modern Turkey), Caesarea‑Maritima became famously known throughout the Mediterranean region and Christian world as Caesarea-Palaestina. The reputation of its academy, library and Christian scholars soared throughout the 3rd‒6th centuries as it effectively replaced Alexandria as the most important learning centre in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Caesarea-Palaestina an bayyana ta dalla-dalla da Yusufu Bayahude, masanin tarihi na Roma a karni na farko, a cikin littafinsa The Jewish War (1981). A matsayinta na hedkwatar gwamnatin Roma a Falasdinu, Kaisariya a hankali ta zama birni mafi girma da muhimmanci a ƙasar, kuma cibiyar tattalin arziki da siyasa ta Falasdinu ta Roma da ta Bizantine. Girmanta ya ƙara tashi bayan tawayen Bar Kochba na Yahudawa da yaƙin da aka yi a lokacin ƙarshen sarautar Sarkin Roma Hadrian (132-136 miladiyya). Hadrian ya sake gina birnin da babbar tashar jiragensa sosai, kuma a lokacin da ya fi girma birnin ya mamaye yanki kusan eka dubu, wato kusan sau biyar girman Urushalima. Yabo ga darajar Kaisariya da sauran biranen Lardin Falasdinu ya zama ruwan dare a majiyoyin Roma. Ammianus Marcellinus, sojan kuma masanin tarihi na Roma a karni na 4, wanda aka haifa a cikin iyali masu magana da Girkanci kuma arna a Siriya ko Finikiya, kuma wanda aikinsa Bature masanin tarihi Edward Gibbon ya yaba sosai, ya bayyana Lardin Falasdinu kusan shekara ta 380 miladiyya kamar haka:

Caesarea-Palaestina was described in detail by the 1st century Roman Jewish historian Josephus in his work The Jewish War (1981). As the headquarters of the Roman government in Palestine, Caesarea gradually became the largest and most important city in the country and the economic and political hub of Roman and Byzantine Palestine. Its predominance was elevated further after the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt and war, waged in the course of the later years of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (132‒136 AD). The city and its big harbour were extensively rebuilt by Hadrian and at its height the city covered an urban area of nearly a thousand acres – almost five times the size of Jerusalem. Praise for the splendour and physical attributes of Caesarea and other cities of Provincia Palaestina were common in Roman sources. Ammianus Marcellinus, a 4th century Roman soldier and historian, born to a Greekspeaking pagan family in Syria or Phoenicia – whose work was highly regarded by English historian Edward Gibbon – describes Provincia Palaestina in c. 380 AD as follows:

Yanki na ƙarshe na Sham shi ne Falasdin, wanda ke mamaye fili mai faɗi sosai kuma yana da ƙasashe masu noma da kyau da aka kula da su. Haka kuma tana da wasu birane masu kyau, waɗanda babu ɗaya daga cikinsu da ya fi sauran, sai dai suna gasa da juna, kamar dai an auna su da sarka. Waɗannan su ne Kaisariya, wadda Hirudus ya gina don girmama sarki Octavianus, Eleutheropolis [Beit Jibrin], da Neapolis [Nablus], tare da Ascalon da Gaza, waɗanda aka gina a zamanin baya. A waɗannan yankuna ba a ga wani kogi da jiragen ruwa ke iya tafiya a cikinsa ba, amma a wurare da yawa ruwan zafi na halitta yana fitowa daga ƙasa, wanda ake amfani da shi ga magunguna iri-iri. (Ammianus Marcellinus c. 380, Littafi na XIV: 8, 11; wanda Johnson, L. 2000: 36 ya ambata)

The last region of the Syrias is Palestine, extending over a great extent of territory and abounding in cultivated and well-kept lands; it also has some splendid cities, none of which yields to any of the others, but they rival one another, as it were, by plumb-line. These are Caesarea, which Herodes built in honour of the emperor Octavianus, Eleutheropolis [Beit Jibrin], and Neapolis [Nablus], along with Ascalon and Gaza, built in a former age. In these districts no navigable river is anywhere to be seen, but in numerous places natural warm springs gush forth, adapted to many medicinal uses. (Ammianus Marcellinus c. 380, Book XIV: 8, 11; cited in Johnson, L. 2000: 36)

Daga farkon karni na 3, Kaisariyya-Falasdin ta zama babban birnin farar hula na Falasdinu, kuma daga baya, lokacin da aka raba Falasdinu zuwa larduna uku (duba ƙasa), ta ci gaba da zama babban birnin Palaestina Prima. A karni na 3 da na 4, al'ummar wannan birni mai yawan addinai da al'adu iri-iri a bakin Bahar Rum ta ƙunshi 'yan ƙasar Greco-Roman masu bautar gumakan Greco-Roman, Samariyawa, Yahudawa masu magana da Girkanci da Aramaic (Donaldson 2000), Kiristoci masu magana da Girkanci, Kiristoci masu magana da Aramaic, da Kiristocin Larabawa.

From the early 3rd century Caesarea-Palaestina became the civil metropolis of Palestine, and later, when Palestine was divided into three provinces (see below), it remained the capital of Palaestina Prima. In the 3rd and 4th centuries the diverse population of this pluralistic Mediterranean city included Greco-Roman citizens worshipping Greco-Roman deities, Samaritans, Greek and Aramaic-speaking Jews (Donaldson 2000), Greekspeaking Christians, Aramaic-speaking Christians and Arab Christians.