The March of Time Question

[Gnip]

Hey guys,

I'm new here so I hope you wouldn't mind some stupid questions on my part.

Anyways, I've recently begun playing EB as Hayasdan, but there is one problem: The Carthaginians steamrolled through Italy and Rome went extinct(around 220 BC, give or take) before the reforms ever took place. Does this mean whatever upgrades (I don't know all the triggers) wouldn't take place because the March of Time trigger could never happen? I'd hate to resort to cheating in order to fix this, because this is the first RTW game were I haven't cheated in some way (so far :p).

Thanks in advance