The jewels in the crown of Herodian architecture were two new towns. Caesarea, on the coast, adorned with all the public edifices of a Roman city (theater, amphitheater, hippodrome), was to become the major port of the future province and the seat of the procurator. Sebaste, founded near ancient Samaria, was to provide the king with loyal soldiers.

There were also the royal citadels erected throughout the land, often on sites of former Hasmonean structures. The most famous example is Masada. This isolated rock on the edge of the Judean Desert was fortified in the Hasmonean period, and later transformed by Herod into a splendid palace and fort. Another citadel, Herodium, built on a hill in Bethlehem, was intended by Herod to serve as his burial place in imitation of such mausoleums built by Augustus.

Other fortresses overlooked the Judean Desert. Indeed, the route leading up from the valley of Jericho to Jerusalem was of prime strategic importance. Yet strategy was not the sole motivation: in these splendid winter palaces, the king could relax and live as he pleased, far away from the reproving eyes of orthodox subjects in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, however, was not neglected. Not only did he adorn his capital in Roman style, but with the idea of immortalizing himself while demonstrating his loyalty to Judaism, Herod also rebuilt the Temple in magnificent proportions. Even the sages, who disapproved of his conduct in private and public affairs, could not but express admiration for his splendid Temple, saying that "He who has not seen Herod's building, has never seen a beautiful building."

Now as Agrippa was a great builder in many places, he paid a peculiar regard to the people of Berytus; for he erected a theater for them, superior to many others of that sort, both in Sumptuousness and elegance, as also an amphitheater, built at vast expenses; and besides these, he built them baths and porticoes, and spared for no costs in any of his edifices, to render them both handsome and large. He also spent a great deal upon their dedication, and exhibited shows upon them, and brought thither musicians of all sorts, and such as made the most delightful music of the greatest variety. He also showed his magnificence upon the theater, in his great number of gladiators; and there it was that he exhibited the several antagonists, in order to please the spectators; no fewer indeed than seven hundred men to fight with seven hundred other men (21) and allotted all the malefactors he had for this exercise, that both the malefactors might receive their punishment, and that this operation of war might be a recreation in peace. And thus were these criminals all destroyed at once.

The Pretorium was originally the headquarters of a Roman camp, but in the provinces the name became attached to the governor's official residence. In order to provide residences for their provincial governors, the Romans were accustomed to seize and appropriate the palaces which were formerly the homes of the princes or kings in conquered countries. The headquarters of the procurator were at Herod's palace. There is no need to suppose that Herod Antipas was in the same palace. It is more probable he went to the palace of the Hasmoneans which lay lower down on the eastern slope of this southwest hill.

Herod’s Palace: According to the historian Josephus, Herod the Great built an extensive, luxurious palace in the "upper city" of Jerusalem just south of the present Jaffa Gate. A fortress itself, it was built against the western wall of the city for further strength. On its north side, Herod built three towers, each named for a person close to him: Hippicus, a friend who died in battle, Phasael, one of his sons, also killed in battle, and Mariamne, his Hasmonean wife whom he murdered out of jealousy. The palace was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towers at equal distances, and with large bed-chambers, that would contain beds for a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is not to be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were rare of that kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful, both for the length of the beams, and the splendor of their ornaments. The number of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures that were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and the greatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver and gold. There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, round about, and in each of those porticoes curious pillars; yet were all the courts that were exposed to the air every where green. There were, moreover, several groves of trees, and long walks through them, with deep canals, and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen statues, through which the water ran out. There were withal many dove-courts of tame pigeons about the canals.

When Herod died, the palace passed over to his son Archelaeus who was given control of Judea and Samaria. When Archelaeus was deposed in A.D. 6, the palace became the official residence of the Roman prefect (or procurator). The prefect was appointed by the emperor and responsible to him for governing Judea and Samaria. His residence and administrative headquarters were at Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. When he came to Jerusalem, usually for feast days, he resided either at the Fortress of Antonia or Herod’s Palace.

The palace was later destroyed, not by the Romans, but by the Jewish rebels. The Roman procurators had taken up the palace as their residence after the conquest of Palestine in the year 6. Decades of strife passed between the Jews and the Romans. After governor Florus had set up a mass crucifixion of innocent Jews, the First Jewish Rebellion broke out in 66. Jews entered and burnt the palace. Only three defense towers remained partly standing.