Caesarea Maritima, the city Herod the Great (r. 37-4 BCE) built for Rome on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean served as the Roman Empire's powerbase of operations both commercially and militarily. With Rome's ultimate goal of adding Mesopotamia to its list of conquered territories, Caesarea would initially play an important role for Rome in the Near East.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2536/caesarea-maritimas-role-in-the-roman-empire/.