Some questions.

[ReluctantSamurai]

A good suggestion from Lord Reid about relocating your capital to a more central location. I would add my own 2denarii by suggesting you attempt to attain ZPG (Zero Population Growth) for as many cities as you possibly can. If the population isn't growing, neither is squalor and therefore neither is discontent. At this stage, governors with law & order traits and high influence are at a premium, as are ancillaries to that effect. It's probably impossible to get every city to ZPG, but for every one that you do, that's one less city where you have to massacre the population to get things under control.

And as an addendum, I would tear down as many 'cultural' buildings as is feasible when you capture a city, particularly for very large or huge cities (and, although many folks recommend against it, I always exterminate large and huge cities when I capture them, particularly those that carry a hefty culture penalty, just to give me time to convert as many city structures as possible---particularly the temple---to my culture type.) I find I have much less problems this way. For the Brutii, the Temple of Juno gives you the best results for law & order as it has benefits for both law and happiness.

City garrison will only take you so far in keeping unrest below outright rebellion, but for those places far from the 'front-lines' and not likely to be attacked, peasants and/or town watch will suffice. No sense wasting trained legionnaires with much higher upkeep on such a menial task. Choose governors with high influence even if they have no management skill. At this stage, you are making huge amounts of money anyway, so a few thousand extra denarii won't make that much difference. Ancillaries can make up some of that lack of management....of paramount importance is keeping the population stable and happy enough to stay out of rebellions ('green-face, yellow-face, blue-face'....it doesn't matter, as long as they aren't rebelling.)

I used to keep my best field generals out fighting the enemy until they died, but nowadays I 'retire' them at about 50 or so and send them to my least loyal city or one that I'm having trouble with. These generals tend to have very high influence along with their command skills, so they do very well at keeping a troublesome populace happy. They will only be around for another 10 or 15 yrs. anyways, so they tend not to acquire very many bad traits.

Again, just my 2denarii............................

[smooth_operator]

To become the Supreme ruler of Rome, you will need a huge dominion which of course is bigger than you rivals. Also, watch your standing with the locals. See the image that you posted?Click on the Senate tab and click on the Senate floor tab. there you will see your standing among the Senate and the Locals. All you have to do is win many a battle to raise your rep among the locals in Rome. One thing I noticed is that it's almost automatic that when my rep among the mob becomes high, the Senate becomes displeased(probably envious of my achievements) so no need to worry. As an ultimatum(in my case), the Senate gave me a mission in which my faction leader was to commit suicide. I refused so I got outlawed and that was my go signal to land my invasion army that I was formed up in Greece.(I was the Brutii).