Rome has to be nerfed.

[Nostalgium]

I just want Rome to fuck off West instead of East.

The problem is that due to the way expansion works, with happiness and religion, East really is the optimal path for them. Same religion is such a huge boost to stability, and civilization is higher there as well, which Republics and Monarchies weighs highly in their considerations for where to declare. I feel like we'll need some reviewed mechanisms for colonization - and I don't mean of empty provinces - to make the spread into uncivilized land and the development of cities and infrastructure for Rome to go west.

and also hegemony mechanics to incentivize them fighting Carthage

 

[Feowen]

Much to the pleasure of Carthage and Gallia (me) Rome can be beaten - by itself...

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Their civil war is going on for more than 25years now (first pic is not exactly the beginning, it had been going for a some time already probably) and no end is in sight, as the Yellow Rome seems to have the edge in land battles, but Red Rome holds the navy. The civil war happened probably as result of technological advance, as the Reds are lead by Dictators, while team yellow plays for the Republic.

This game is BTW played with a mod disabling the AI province loyalty boost in case of rebellions, but I think this had, if at all, only an indirect effect on this civil war. My other impression is that if an AI has trouble with it, it is the Seleukid Empire. The suffer most from provincial rebellions and their empire has gotten a bit (they still have 200+ territories and some vassals) fractured now.

Since my post above yours, I played Massilia after the confidence boost I had received playing Carthage and managed to score the 'Pythias' achievement (not nearly has hard as it seems). The only downer was Rome took 'Alps Maritimae' and my megalopolis capital from me in a war after I scored the achievement. Normally one would quit at that point, dispondant but again, having learned my lesson that sometimes seeming defeat isn't always game-ending... I waited around.

Without any mods, something similar happened to Rome as in your screenshot, they imploded into the 'East Roman Senate' versus 'West Roman Dictatorship' revolt (orange v red) and I decided to reclaim my capital and DoW'd with some giant italian/punic merc legions against Roman legion. The Greek-Celtic ideas had super-powered Archer regiments, and against my assumption Heavy Infantry > All, these archers CONSUMED everything thrown at them. (punic mercs seem to be archer/HI stacks). I should also note that this game I took NO MILITARY techs so this was the ultimate test.

I didn't want to take any Roman territory outside of Transalpine Gaul, and they'd mostly gone East into Greece and Macedonia, so I fought them until they started sending concerning numbers of armies at me and then peace'd them out by releasing an absolutely gigantic number of city states from them (sort by smallest war score, and selected as many as possible). For whatever reason, this seems to have broke Rome in my Massilia game, they spent 75 years at peace as the "Roman Kingdom" and have left me alone.

 

[Tuna Cat]

rome arguably is nerfed.

 

[Akbar The Great]

rome arguably is nerfed.

And far more persuasively argued, Rome is OP AF.