Rome Total War

[Nihonius Legio]

If it's like the original Rome Total War, (the version you have) you have to win the 50 province campaign, then you can play most of the others. Some of them have almost no chance of winning, so it's just as well you can't play them...I have won as Parthians, though, the civ in which cataphracts eat most all infantry with little difficulty. If you can just last that long.

I know someone who has won as Seleucids (who also get cataphracts), but I always get clobbered between the Egyptians and the Parthians, so I've never gotten far.

The Seleucids are playable from the beggining though. I kicked butt as them though, got bored and started a new campaign though. I owned most of the map though, and was incapable of going broke (lots of $)