Pontus has attacked - the Selucids are wiped out - their army does better against me than the Romans since they are mainly spearmen when I relieved Sidon (which means they are effective against horse - and the legionary troops take a long time to build.)

Had Spy problems with them - the first real indicator of what a spy can do - had something like 80% unrest and 80% distance penalty for Jerusalem. Then the Spy moved to Sidon and increased unrest there - and then moved back to Jerusalem to repeat the unrest. Eventually my own spies killed him off.

I think that Pontus is relatively weak - it certainly looks that way in the graphs section - but is benefitting from a very compact region - basically all of Turkey - (and now Damascus, which is only a town, so wont help them that much). My own area stretches from Tingi (opposite Corduba) in the West, Patavium (North Central) and Jerusalem in the East. There is a LOT of 80% distance penalties and the Nile cities aren't really helping that much since they have large peasant garrisons. However I can't move the capital over there until I have numidified Italy.

I want to basically kick the Julii out of Italy (Menolevium/ Segesta and the original city in the West of Italy to take), take Caralis, and fight a holding campaign against Pontus. No doubt the Brutii will send forces up to Patavium, but that I can manage, and am now getting some reasonable income each turn - sufficient for some development - although I have NEVER had 1M Denarii in any game. (or even 200000)