Rimliklar Falastinni O'rta er dengizi mintaqasi tomon qayta yo'naltirdilar, natijada dengiz bo'yidagi Kesariya Maritima shahri (yunoncha: Parálios Kaisáreia; Παράλιος Καισάρεια) tashkil etildi va keyinchalik ulkan yuksalishga erishdi. Bu shahar Kesariya-Falastin (yoki "Falastinning Kesariyasi") nomi bilan ham mashhur edi. Asrlar davomida Kesariya-Falastin Falastinning poytaxti va O'rta er dengizi mintaqasidagi eng muhim madaniy markazlardan biri bo'lib xizmat qildi, amalda Afina va Aleksandriya kabi ikki buyuk shaharning o'rnini egalladi. Dastlab O'rta er dengizi sohilidagi falastinlik/finikiyalik qishloq bo'lgan Kesariya-Falastin Suriya-Falastin viloyatida harbiy xizmatdan bo'shatilgan faxriylar uchun tashkil etilgan to'rtta rimlik koloniyadan (coloniae) biriga aylandi (Butcher 2003: 230). U Avgust Sezar sharafiga nomlangan edi.

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.

Rim shahri va uning yirik porti Yahudiya (Falastin) dagi Rim vassali bo‘lgan podsho Buyuk Hirod (yunoncha:

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

Horodos (Herod), 37 dan 4 m.a.gacha hukmronlik qilgan. Idumeylardan kelib chiqqan Horod (ehtimol nabatey arab kelib chiqishli) bo'lib, u yunon madaniyatiga xos yahudiylikni qabul qilgan edi. U ulkan qurilish loyihalari bilan tanilgan: Qaysariya Maritima portini, Quddusdagi yunon uslubidagi ibodatxonani («Horod ibodatxonasi») va Masada qal'asini qurdirgan.

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.

U also Via Maris bo'ylab bir nechta harbiy qal'alarni ham qurdi yoki qayta tikladi.

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

Caesarea Maritima ulkan portining qurilishi Yoffa (Jaffa) bandarining tarixiy port sifatidagi ahamiyatining pasayishidan dalolat berdi. Irod vafotidan ikki yil o'tib, miloddan avvalgi 6 yildan boshlab Caesarea Maritima Rim prefektining — ma'muriy hudud boshlig'ining — qarorgohiga aylandi.

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.

Caesarea Maritima ni Caesarea Philippi (yoki Caesarea Paneas) dan – bu nom keyinchalik Golan balandliklaridagi zamonaviy Arab Banyas shaklida o‘zgargan – hamda Caesarea Cappadocia (hozirgi Turkiya) dan ajratish uchun Caesarea‑Maritima butun O‘rta er dengizi mintaqasida va xristian dunyosida Caesarea-Palaestina nomi bilan mashhur bo‘ldi. Uning akademiyasi, kutubxonasi va xristian olimlarining obro‘si 3–6 asrlarda keskin oshdi, shu sababli shahar Sharqiy O‘rta er dengizidagi eng muhim ilm markazi sifatida Iskandariyaning o‘rnini egalladi.

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.

Kesariya-Palestina 1-asr rimlik yahudiy tarixchisi Yosef (Josephus) tomonidan uning "Yahudiylarning urushi" (The Jewish War, 1981) asarida batafsil tasvirlangan. Rim hukumatining Falastindagi markazi bo‘lgan Kesariya asta-sekin mamlakatdagi eng katta va eng muhim shaharga, Rim va Vizantiya Falastinining iqtisodiy va siyosiy markaziga aylandi. Uning ustunligi yahudiylarning Bar Kohba qo‘zg‘oloni va urushidan keyin yanada oshdi; bu urush Rim imperatori Hadrian hukmronligining so‘nggi yillarida (miloddan avvalgi 132‒136 yillar) olib borilgan edi. Shahar va uning katta portini Hadrian keng ko‘lamda qayta qurdirdi, eng gullagan davrida esa shaharning shahar hududi deyarli ming akrni tashkil etdi – bu Quddusning taxminan besh baravar kattaligi edi. Rim manbalarida Kesariya va Provincia Palaestina'ning boshqa shaharlarining go‘zalligi va jismoniy fazilatlari haqida maqtovlar keng uchraydi. 4-asr Rim askari va tarixchisi Ammianus Marcellinus, Suriya yoki Finikiyada yunontilli butparast oilada tug‘ilgan bo‘lib, uning asarlari ingliz tarixchisi Edvard Gibbon tomonidan yuqori baholangan, miloddan keyingi taxminan 380-yilda Provincia Palaestina'ni quyidagicha tasvirlaydi:

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:

Suriyaning oxirgi viloyati Falastin bo‘lib, u keng hududni egallaydi, ekin ekilgan va yaxshi parvarish qilinadigan yerlarga boy. Shuningdek, unda bir nechta ajoyib shaharlar bor, ularning birortasi boshqalaridan kam emas, balki go‘yo shovun chizig‘i bilan o‘lchanganday, bir-biri bilan raqobatlashadi. Bular Qaysariya bo‘lib, uni Iroyd imperator Oktavian sharafiga qurdirgan, Eleutheropolis [Bayt Jibrin] va Neapolis [Nablus], shuningdek, avvalgi davrda qurilgan Ashkelon va G‘azo. Bu hududlarda hech qayerda kemalar qatnaydigan daryo ko‘zga tashlanmaydi, lekin ko‘plab joylarda tabiiy issiq buloqlar otilib chiqadi, ular turli davolash maqsadlariga yaroqli. (Ammianus Marcellinus, taxminan 380 y., XIV kitob: 8, 11; keltirilgan manba: 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)

III asrning boshidan Qaysariya-Falastin Falastinning fuqarolik metropoliyasiga aylandi va keyinroq Falastin uch viloyatga bo'lingach (quyiga qarang), u Falastin Prima (Palaestina Prima) poytaxti bo'lib qoldi. III–IV asrlarda bu ko'p millatli O'rta er dengizi shahrining turli aholisi orasida Yunon-Rim fuqarolari, Yunon-Rim xudolariga sig'inuvchilar, samariyaliklar, yunon va aramey tilida so'zlashuvchi yahudiylar (Donaldson 2000), yunon tilida so'zlashuvchi masihiylar, aramey tilida so'zlashuvchi masihiylar va arab masihiylari bor edi.

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.