Replying to what Alexander said, being a procterate isn't all that bad. I was playing a campaign with Pontus and things were going slowly. I had annihilated Armenia and taken the Seleucid Empire's easternmost provinces when Egypt offered to make me a procterate. (The Seleucids and Egyptians had an alliance which neither of them broke, which was rather odd...) Out of the deal I got a load of gold and a whole bunch of territory near the Nile, the best part was I wasn't a procterate for long. The next thing I knew the Egyptians were trying to take Arabia.