Managed to beat my score by one turn - 1085 a.d.
Same settings - Augustus, low seas, snaky continents, no barbs, no vassals.
REX was the main difference between this one and all my sucky attempts today. On chieftan you can chop settlers like mad and not have to worry about too big a hit to your wealth for all the cities. I had one lucky hut, my settler popped a worker right off the bat, so I got a farm and a gold w/o building a worker. In both games I let my capital grow before building workers or settlers, and researched animal husbandry and bronze working before training a worker. In the meantime I made warriors to explore.
The main difference w/ this one was that I oracle jumped to feudalism, instead of civil service. With feudalism I used the 2 civics that come with it, +2 exp and workers make improvements 50% faster. That gave me prats w/ 2 promotions, which killed archers really easy. And w/ the promotions my workers made late improvements, like plantations, a lot quicker.
I think the main thing that helped the most was REX... getting a lot of cities ASAP.
Edit: Right, low seas I meant.
I must be getting better or something. 
