The question becomes whether or not you want your capital to be a recruiting center or not... if you want to recruit most of your elite faction troops, then you are stuck with a Hellenic capital. Pella or Antioch are your options. If you want to have a centrally located economic juggernaut, then you should consider Pergamum or Byzantium. Personally, in my campaign as Epiros, I think that I have a lot more loyalty problems in Italy and Thrace/central Europe because the Italian and Barbarian cultures are much less sympathetic to me than are the Hellenistic ones. Therefore, even as my empire has become lopsided to the East, I keep my capital in its original position in NW Greece at Ambraikia to better soothe my Italian and Barbarian subjects.
Once Epiros conquers Greece they are pretty rich - My royal guard is a full stack of elites - 2 units of hypapistai, 2 of peltastai makedonikoi, 4 phalanxes (2 epirote version Argyraspidai and 2 Pezhetaroi), 4 thorakitai, my general with 3 Molosson Agema Cavalry, 2 thessalian cavalry, 1 elephant unit, one heavy Greek skirmisher cavalry that rides along with the elephant - this last guy is not elite, but he he has 3 gold chevrons now, and he's grandfathered in to the division, plus these guys help keep light infantry/cav away from the elephants. This Royal Guard division has never lost a battle in my campaign, and their only downside is that they have to be returned to Greece for retraining periodically - also I often leave this unit in a depleted condition after a war is over because they are expensive. Actually, I can afford several regional armies as Epiros (a Barbarian army, composed of Celts and Thracians in the North, In Italian army composed of samnites and other native troops in Italy, and an Asian army in Anatolia. Whenever a war breaks out my regional army is assisted by the royal Guard and my faction leader - who are mobilized from Greece. Sorry about spelling, I'm at work and unable to access the exact unit names...
Bookmarks