Getting started on the heady road to success:

     1.  Try  to start building your city between two rivers or better
still  and area of land where two rivers converge. Instead of building
walls  to  enclose  the city put down a line of wells - the barbarians
can't cross water or destroy the wells so your city always gets off to
a good start.

     2.  Raise  your  personal  income to around 100 denari so you can
build  up  a  personal  fortune.  Thay  way you can use your wealth to
invest  when  times  get  hard.  Only accept promotion when you've got
maximum personal fortune.

     3.  Don't  build  houses close to industry and workshops - people
won't  live  there  and  the houses won't get past the second stage of
development.

     4.  People  want  to  live  close  to the forum - bath houses and
oracles.  Make  sure houses have the necessary water supply and if you
build roads near them they're much more likely to grow.

     5.  Don't  forget to take care of the provincial level - you must
keep  the  barbarians  out  of your city. Increase the slave wages and
army  wages  straight away - it's worth making the army wages absurdly
high.  Assign more slaves than you need to all the duties (particulary
fire  prevention)  and when you've recruited plenty of soldiers switch
to  the provincial level. Place a couple of cohorts as a precautionary
measure  and make them patrol around your city. Spend some time on the
provincial  map watching for where the barbarian ships are landing and
when  you  see  where the troops come ashore. Put a line of wall along
the coast. The next time the barbarians land they should be trapped on
the  beach  and they won't be able to knock down the wall. You can now
carry  on  building  your city in peace just make sure the walls don't
deteriorate.