When I played Scipii I conquered Carthage, allied Numidia, then invaded Spain and Southern France. Somewhere in the middle of that I got into a war with Egypt so they were next and then I pushed up through the Middle East and Asia Minor and conquered all that along with Numidia at the end(they never broke the alliance) to reach my 50 regions. I never even touched Greece or had a civil war. Well, technically I had a civil war, but the game ended the same turn. I marched my heir into a plague stricken Rome with a full stack of Mirmillo Gladiators behind him under the guise of "establishing order".