I play Julii too (Expert/Expert at that )

The real problem is the population, not really the money. Right now it is 261 and I have about 11030 denari and I'm continously building on all provinces. I'm about to have my 7th settlement (including the initial 2). It takes time to raise population to reach tech requirements. Right now I'm only a couple of turns to Tech Level 3.

The Roman campaign is actually looking pretty sweet. I might do another one after this.

One other thing is the Senate missions.I didn't do one of the Senate mission down south because I wanted to get rid of the Gauls first. The Senate yelled at me when I "failed" (Senate= Juliii= )