Warumi waliielekeza Palestina upande wa eneo la Bahari ya Mediterania, na hilo lilisababisha kuanzishwa kwa mji wa pwani wa Caesarea Maritima (Kigiriki: Parálios Kaisáreia; Παράλιος Καισάρεια), ambao pia ulijulikana sana kama Caesarea-Palaestina (au ‘Caesarea ya Palestina’), na kisha kukua kwa kasi kubwa. Kwa karne nyingi Caesarea-Palaestina ilitumika kama mji mkuu wa Palestina na mojawapo ya vituo muhimu zaidi vya utamaduni katika eneo la Mediterania, na hivyo kuchukua nafasi ya miji miwili mikubwa ya Athens na Alexandria. Awali ikiwa kijiji cha Wapalestina/Wafoinike kwenye pwani ya Mediterania, Caesarea-Palaestina ilikuwa mojawapo ya makoloni manne ya Kirumi (coloniae) kwa wanajeshi wastaafu katika mkoa wa Syria-Palaestina (Butcher 2003: 230), ukipewa jina kwa heshima ya 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.

Mji wa Kirumi na bandari yake kuu zilipanuliwa kwa kiwango kikubwa na mfalme kibaraka wa Kirumi wa Yudea katika Palestina, Herode Mkuu (Kigiriki:

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

Horodos), aliyetawala kuanzia mwaka 37 hadi 4 KK. Herode, ambaye mababu zake walikuwa Waidumea (huenda wenye asili ya Kinabatea ya Kiarabu) waliokuwa wameukubali Uyahudi wa Kihelenistiki, alijulikana kwa mpango wake mkubwa wa ujenzi, ikiwa ni pamoja na ujenzi wa bandari ya Kaisaria Maritima, hekalu la mtindo wa Kigiriki huko Yerusalemu (‘Hekalu la Herode’) na ngome ya 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.

Alijenga pia au kujenga upya ngome kadhaa za kijeshi kando ya Via Maris.

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

Ujenzi wa bandari kubwa huko Kaisarea Maritima uliashiria kupungua kwa umuhimu wa Yafa (Joppa) kama bandari ya kihistoria. Miaka miwili baada ya kifo cha Herode, Kaisarea Maritima ikawa makao makuu ya gavana wa Kirumi – kiongozi wa eneo la utawala – kuanzia mwaka 6 BK.

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.

Ili kulitofautisha Kaisarea Maritima na Kaisarea Philippi (au Kaisarea Paneas) – jina ambalo baadaye lilibadilika na kuwa Banyas ya Kiarabu katika Milima ya Golan – na Kaisarea Cappadocia (Uturuki ya leo), Kaisarea-Maritima ilijulikana sana katika eneo lote la Mediterania na ulimwengu wa Kikristo kama Kaisarea-Palaestina. Sifa ya chuo chake, maktaba yake na wanazuoni wake Wakristo iliongezeka sana katika karne ya 3 hadi ya 6, kwani kilichukua nafasi ya Alexandria kama kituo kikuu cha elimu katika Mashariki ya Mediterania.

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 ilielezwa kwa kina na mwanahistoria Myahudi wa Kirumi wa karne ya 1 Josephus katika kazi yake The Jewish War (1981). Kama makao makuu ya serikali ya Kirumi huko Palestina, Caesarea hatua kwa hatua ikawa mji mkubwa na muhimu zaidi nchini, na kitovu cha uchumi na siasa cha Palestina ya Kirumi na ya Byzantine. Umuhimu wake uliongezeka zaidi baada ya uasi na vita vya Wayahudi vya Bar Kochba, vilivyopiganwa katika miaka ya baadaye ya Mfalme wa Kirumi Hadrian (132‒136 BK). Mji huo pamoja na bandari yake kubwa vilijengwa upya kwa kiwango kikubwa na Hadrian, na wakati wa kilele chake mji ulienea katika eneo la mijini la karibu ekari elfu moja – karibu mara tano ya ukubwa wa Yerusalemu. Sifa za uzuri na mpangilio wa kimwili wa Caesarea na miji mingine ya Provincia Palaestina zilikuwa zikisifiwa mara kwa mara katika vyanzo vya Kirumi. Ammianus Marcellinus, askari na mwanahistoria wa Kirumi wa karne ya 4, aliyezaliwa katika familia ya kipagani inayozungumza Kigiriki huko Syria au Foinike – ambaye kazi yake ilithaminiwa sana na mwanahistoria wa Kiingereza Edward Gibbon – anaelezea Provincia Palaestina takriban mwaka 380 BK kama ifuatavyo:

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:

Eneo la mwisho la Syria ni Palestina, linalojumuisha eneo kubwa la ardhi na lenye mashamba mengi yaliyolimwa na kutunzwa vizuri; pia lina miji mizuri, ambayo hakuna hata mmoja unaopungukiwa na mingine, bali zinashindana, kana kwamba kwa kupimwa kwa timazi. Hiyo ni Kaisaria, ambayo Herode aliijenga kwa heshima ya mfalme Octavianus, Eleutheropolis [Beit Jibrin], na Neapolis [Nablus], pamoja na Ashkeloni na Gaza, zilizojengwa katika zama za awali. Katika maeneo haya hakuna mto wowote unaoweza kupitisha meli unaoonekana, lakini mahali pengi chemchemi za maji moto za asili hububujika, zinazofaa kwa matumizi mengi ya kitabibu. (Ammianus Marcellinus c. 380, Kitabu XIV: 8, 11; kimenukuliwa katika Johnson, L. 2000: 36)

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)

Kuanzia mwanzoni mwa karne ya tatu, Kaisarea-Palaestina ilikuwa mji mkuu wa kiraia wa Palestina, na baadaye, Palestina ilipogawanywa katika mikoa mitatu (ona hapa chini), iliendelea kuwa mji mkuu wa Palaestina Prima. Katika karne ya tatu na ya nne, wakazi mbalimbali wa mji huu wa Mediterania wenye wingi wa dini na tamaduni walijumuisha raia wa Kigiriki-Kirumi walioabudu miungu ya Kigiriki-Kirumi, Wasamaria, Wayahudi wanaozungumza Kigiriki na Kiaramu (Donaldson 2000), Wakristo wanaozungumza Kigiriki, Wakristo wanaozungumza Kiaramu, na Wakristo Waarabu.

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.