I voted Sassanid thinking it read Selucid. The best 'turtle' games I have had so far have been the ones where I took the Selucids and sailed them to Britain, abandoning the Middle East. This provides and interesting challenge in the beginning just getting them there without going broke and then beating the Britons. However, once you have done this you have four cities, three of which will almost certainly be VERY primitive and your expansion will eventually come up against the Romans.

These games essentially have a few phases for me:
1) Holding the line in the starting cities without building much at all while my starting family members + a few other units sail to Ireland.
2) Taking all of the British Isles and letting the remaining Middle East cities fall.
3) Building up the British cities.
4) Expanding on the continent, soon encountering Rome.

I've always massively enjoyed these games. It's nice to have a 'civilized' non-Roman faction in Europe.