ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 takes the two most important cities of Judea – Jerusalem and Caesarea – as its tool for comparison. Both cities were heavily impacted by King Herod, who was responsible for the founding of Caesarea and impressive building projects at Jerusalem, including an expansion of the Jewish Temple there. Caesarea was a Hippodamian exemplar based around a man-made harbor. The hilly terrain of Jerusalem prevented a grid plan, at least until the Roman emperor Hadrian refounded the city after its destruction by Roman forces in 70 CE. Jerusalem became an important city with the legalization of Christianity, and the numerous churches attest to this fact. Later, after the Muslim conquest, rulers of the Umayyad dynasty built on the ruins of the Jewish Temple as a way to demonstrate their control over the region. Caesarea benefited from the Jewish Revolt that led to Jerusalem’s destruction by becoming the most important administrative city in the southern Levant. This continued until the Muslim conquest. As capital of a wealthy and religiously important province, the city flourished in late antiquity. It was largely abandoned after the Muslim conquest because it was one of the few cities to resist a Muslim siege.
