罗马人将巴勒斯坦的重心转向地中海地区,由此建立了沿海城市该撒利亚滨海(希腊语:Parálios Kaisáreia;Παράλιος Καισάρεια),此城也以"巴勒斯坦的该撒利亚"(Caesarea-Palaestina)之名闻名,并在此后迅速繁荣。几个世纪以来,该撒利亚-巴勒斯坦一直是巴勒斯坦的首府,也是地中海地区最重要的文化中心之一,实际上取代了雅典和亚历山大这两大名城的地位。该城最初是地中海沿岸的一个巴勒斯坦/腓尼基村庄,后来成为叙利亚-巴勒斯坦行省中为退伍老兵而设的四个罗马移民殖民地(coloniae)之一(Butcher 2003: 230),并以奥古斯都·恺撒的名字命名,以示尊崇。

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.

这座罗马城市及其主要港口曾由罗马在巴勒斯坦犹太行省的附庸国王希律大帝（希腊文：

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

（Horodos），公元前37年至公元前4年在位。希律的祖先是以东人（可能有纳巴泰阿拉伯人的血统），他们后来皈依了希腊化的犹太教。希律以其规模宏大的建筑计划而闻名，包括建造了凯撒利亚马里蒂玛的港口、耶路撒冷的希腊式神庙（“希律圣殿”）以及马萨达的堡垒。

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.

他还在海路（Via Maris）沿线修建或重建了几座军事堡垒。

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

在凯撒利亚滨海（Caesarea Maritima）建造一座规模宏大的港口，标志着约帕（雅法）作为历史悠久港口的重要性开始衰落。希律去世两年后，即公元6年起，凯撒利亚滨海成为罗马行政长官的驻地——行政长官是一个行政区的首长。

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.

为了将滨海凯撒利亚(Caesarea Maritima)与腓立比凯撒利亚(Caesarea Philippi,又称Caesarea Paneas)区分开来——后者的名称在现代演变为位于戈兰高地的阿拉伯语地名 Banyas——以及与卡帕多西亚的凯撒利亚(Caesarea Cappadocia,今属土耳其)区分开来,滨海凯撒利亚在整个地中海地区和基督教世界中以"巴勒斯坦凯撒利亚"(Caesarea-Palaestina)之名广为人知。在3至6世纪期间,其学院、图书馆和基督教学者的声望急剧上升,它实际上取代了亚历山大里亚,成为东地中海最重要的学术中心。

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 was described in detail by the 1st century Roman Jewish historian Josephus in his work The Jewish War (1981). 作为罗马政府在巴勒斯坦的总部,该城逐渐成为该国最大、最重要的城市,也是罗马和拜占庭时期巴勒斯坦的经济与政治中心。在犹太人巴尔·科赫巴起义和战争(发生于罗马皇帝哈德良(公元132‒136年)统治后期)之后,它的地位进一步提升。该城及其大港口由哈德良大规模重建,在鼎盛时期,城市面积近一千英亩,几乎是耶路撒冷的五倍。罗马史料中常见对凯撒利亚以及巴勒斯坦行省其他城市之壮丽与物质面貌的赞美。阿米阿努斯·马塞里努斯是公元4世纪的罗马士兵和历史学家,出生于叙利亚或腓尼基一个讲希腊语的异教家庭,其著作深受英国历史学家爱德华·吉本的推崇。他在约公元380年对巴勒斯坦行省作了如下描述:

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:

叙利亚各地中，最后一个地区是巴勒斯坦。它疆域广阔，耕地丰饶，田野整治得井井有条。境内也有若干壮丽的城市，彼此之间没有高下之分，仿佛是以准绳相较而互相媲美。这些城市包括凯撒里亚（希罗德为纪念罗马皇帝屋大维而兴建）、埃留塞罗波利斯［贝特吉布林］、尼亚波利斯［纳布卢斯］，以及在更早时代建成的阿什凯隆和加沙。这些地区看不到任何可供通航的河流，但在许多地方，天然温泉涌流而出，可用于多种医疗用途。（阿米安努斯·马塞里努斯，约公元380年，第十四卷第8章第11节；转引自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)

自3世纪初起,凯撒利亚-巴勒斯坦成为巴勒斯坦的民事首府,后来巴勒斯坦被划分为三个行省(见下文)时,它仍是巴勒斯坦第一行省(Palaestina Prima)的首府。在3至4世纪,这座多元化的地中海城市居民构成多样,包括崇拜希腊罗马神祇的希腊罗马公民、撒玛利亚人、讲希腊语和阿拉姆语的犹太人(Donaldson 2000)、讲希腊语的基督徒、讲阿拉姆语的基督徒以及阿拉伯基督徒。

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.