It seems possible to stop the civil war from happening. It seems that if you can accomplish all the senate missions the civil war will not happen. In my current game I have conquered such a large part of the map that there is almost no location that is really safe from me. The year is currently 190BC and I've succeeded in all senate missions to date. The "make x faction a protectorate" missions I've just conquered the factions instead. I don't see how the senate could give me a mission I can not complete unless they start only giving me 2 turns to complete them. Incase of civil war I have 3 forts on my boarder with Rome with full armies each but I don't want things to come to that. Long live the republic!

Have any of you been able to avoid civil war?