I have noticed this too, I kind of get the feeling that Rome is something independant that doesn't really have any influence over anything. In my current campaign I completely forgot about Rome, it feels like I am playing a certain "Brutiland"

I have had a couple of ideas on how to improve it, though I do not know what would it take to code them or if it is possible at all.

Here are a couple:

-If a member of your family gets elected consul ( I think it was this one ) then he gets to control Senat's army. This should add an interesting twist and make people really want to become consul.

-A position in the Senat that let's the player give missions to all of the Roman families

-Also it would be interesting if every appointment to Senat would give a player certain options.

-This one should be the easiest to do - modd the game so there would be only one Roman faction that controls Julii, Brutii, Scipii lands and Rome. This way you really are playing Rome not some back alley. This would cause balancing issues though....but would be fun nevertheless.

I have a couple of more, but they are not so clear and need to be given a few minutes time to be thought over.