Senate Question

[Renaissance37]

The Senate keeps getting more and more 'populist' senators. They now have 87 or so senators. How do I stop this and support a faction that I choose, so that they get a super majority?

 

[enf91]

Mouseover the Populist leader on the government screen. This will tell you how the Populists are gaining power. Then do the opposite of whatever it says.

 

[Slavick3000]

With that many populists, just wait until you get a non-populist consul (imprisoning populists until the only eligible consuls are non-populists works). If there is a populist majority in the senate but the consul isn't a populist, you will get a populist civil war. After winning said war, the senate will rebalance with each faction getting 20 senators.
If that doesn't work, wait until you get a fairly competent consul (or one with a competent son/s) and declare a dictatorship. Then you can play on as a monarchy without those pesky populists or you can restore the republic after a little bit. I believe that also rebalances the senate.

To prevent populists from rising up again, make sure to always have an omen up, use as many of your available trade routes as possible, have plenty of slaves and go to war from time to time. Also, check who the populist faction leader is. If he has any sort of respectable charisma (anything above 2), imprison him. The populist faction leader gives a populist attraction equal to 4 times his charisma, as compared to the other factions that only get a bonus equal to their leader's charisma. Also, don't assign any populists to any technology or government posts, as then their charisma will also increase populist attraction (but at the normal 1-to-1 rate).

That's the short answer on managing populists. For the long answer, read the quite thorough Republic Strategy Guide by Cheexsta that is stickied on this forum.

 

[Cheexsta]

See the Unofficial Strategy Guide, it contains all of my thoughts on how to maintain a loyal senate

In short:

1. Make sure that the populist faction leader has a low Charisma value. This is pretty much the only reason I even bother imprisoning people; just keep imprisoning the leaders until you get one with a Charisma value of about 3 or less.
2. Don't give populist characters any office seats, like Army/Navy Quaestor etc, and NEVER give a populist the position of Censor!
3. Don't let characters gain populist conviction, that may make them join the populist faction. Keep them happy with minor titles at the very least, and help them obtain personal objectives since that will usually give them conviction towards other factions. If you look through the character browser and find any characters with a little brown box where their titles would be, it means that they want a title of some sort and will gain populist conviction if they continue going without some kind of job. Even if you give them a minor title (augur, military tribune, etc) that'll keep them happy.
4. Keep trade routes maintained, omens invoked and buildings constructed wherever possible.

I follow all of these steps in all of my republic games and rarely get a populist strength of over 20. It just takes a little bit of patience.

Hope that helps