[Si]
An important coastal settlement situated on the Mediterranean coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa. As a result of extensive campaigns of investigation by Italian and Israeli archaeologists it is known that the predecessor of Caesarea was an anchorage equipped for coastal traffic by the Phoenicians when they captured the Sharon strip of the Palestine coast in the 3rd century bc. It was then called Strato's Tower. Herod the Great enlarged the city and rebuilt its harbour in a campaign of works starting in 22 bc, naming it Caesarea in honour of his patron Caesar Augustus when he inaugurated the town in 10 bc. An inscription that refers to Pontius Pilate is one of the best-known finds of this period. After Herod's death it became the Roman provincial capital of Judaea and was used as the headquarters for Vespasian's campaigns against Jewish revolts between ad 66 and ad 70. Over the next two centuries the town flourished and was a centre for both Christianity and Jewish thought and scholarship. The town was also important in the 12th and 13th centuries ad when it was used by Crusaders. Frequently changing hands between sides, it was redefended at this time.
[Sum.: R. L. Vann (ed.), 1992, Caesarea papers: Straton's Tower, Herod's Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea. Ann Arbor MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 5]
