I am a fan of the total war series, and this series is as good as it gets for strategy (I've pretty much played them all). You command from two angles; the war map (where you control scouts, assassins, armies, and diplomats, along with town/ city management), and the battlefield. The attention to historical units makes this game especially fun and puts the player in the time of the Romans.

Not only can you play as the Romans, but the Saxons, Greeks, Thessalonians, Carthaginians, Egyptians, etc..

Each country has its specified historical units that give them unique capabilities on the battlefied, providing an array of tactics required for the game.

There are a few drawbacks to the game, and the series gets better in the later games (such as Midieval II, currently not available for mac that I know of), but this was definitely worth every penny.