[QUOTE=The_Emperor]The later you leave the Romans the harder it gets for you.

This should be your mantra with any non-roman faction. I'm currently playing as Spain, and my aim was to expand "semi-historically", meaning not to just gobble up the world, but to make war and expansion as a real faction may. So once the Romans had backstabbed me more than neccessary, I decided to sweep the Italian penninsular and Sicily. I did it as all four Roman factions had finished phazing into the Marian units. Of course, it did make for a better challenge, which is what I wanted.