I did this one as 48 Large Insulas since trying to distribute two food types with the limited farm land available (wood have needed at least 7 wheat, 11 vegetable and 2 olive farms) I decided was too challenging, for now at least. The last LI's with room for immigrants are those two across the street from the Governor's Villa, and if I remember correctly the population goal of 4,000 is reached before year end. The city requires little management to keep going, just fulfill Caesar's requests, fend off the occasional invasion and slowly delete some of the labor-soaking extra fountains over time as the population ages.
The extra fountains are to keep unemployment low so that I could set taxes to 25% without complaints (with wages 10+Rome). Also in this career path (my third go at the career so far) I am trying to soak up as much money into my personal savings as I can once my cities can afford it, so I have personal salary at "Caesar" level for Jan-Nov, then turn it back down to that befitting my rank for Dec to avoid unnecessarily bad drops in Favor.
Notice the considerable cluster of educational buildings along the main SW-NE road. I call this the "University of Syracuse." ;-)
In this career path I am making my cities with the following "rules":
1. No loans, debt or bailout from personal funds.
2. All gatehouses only part of defensive walls, not as internal roadblocks.
3. Senate and Governor's Residence in every city, ideally in a "city center," that is as near as possible to the...city's center.
4. Some villas or palaces, scenario resources permitting (i.e. not in Tarraco or Syracuse), even when not required by the Prosperity Rating.
5. No disconnected areas.
6. Forts should be part of the general urban zone, not in a far-flung fortress out "in the boonies."
7. As few reservoirs and aqueducts as possible. None of this aqueducts-leading-all-over-the-map-to-isolated-communities business.
8. I try not to unnecessarily cut down any trees or any part of the Road to Rome.
9. I am not trying for perfect all-100 "century" ratings. I have already done that and so doing it again would be quite redundant. Actually over-achieving for technical stuff like that can be uncreative and dull once you know how to do it. So Instead I am aiming for "good" ratings (certainly good enough to win) but don't need uniform one- or two-types of housing of the best kind the mission offers. Instead I'm aiming for "aesthetic appeal," in my eyes anyway.