When does the civil war start?

[Alexanderofmacedon]

The war starts for me when I disobey the senate. i.e attacking allies and when the senate says stop, I still continue

[x-dANGEr]

So it effects public order in Rome only?

[Ludens]

So it effects public order in Rome only?

Not as far as I know. You simply cannot attack them. You get a message that you are not popular enough and that's it.

[Archer]

Well I had 55 regions and was up to about 156 BC and I still had 5 popularity in the senate but was maxxed on the people. I loaded up 3 huge armys next to Rome and 2 quick auto-resolved battles later had taken it and won the game! Kind of an anti-climatic finish to my first campagin that's been going for almost a month. There really was no civil war! There definitely needs to be some kind of events that decrease Senate popularity faster and pushes you towards civil war as you get more powerful. I had failed the last 4 senate missions and didn't lose any popularity. I guess it was because I was rolling over Egypt which was in line with the Senate's policy.

[Ciaran]

Same with me, after two campaigns (Julii and Bruti) where I started the civil war myself by cancelling treaties with my fellow Roman faction I wanted it to start itself on my go-round with Scipii. I own everything in a half-circle from Ireland to Arabia, Julii have most of what later will be Germany, Bruti are slightly east of that, only Parthia, Scythia and the Seleucid Empire remain of the non-Roman factions. Needless to say I´m way beyond my 50-province requirement, so I just could take Rome and be done with it, but that´s a bit cheap to me. I´d rather had the Civil War erupt when you´ve still got a way to go to winning, say when you´ve got about twenty-five to thirty provinces. So you really have to fight the other Roman factions (and maybe use non-Roman allies to help you against them).

[Avicenna]

Other ways of starting the civil war are ignoring Senate orders to commit suicide (your faction leader) or failing an assassination attempt on a Roman family member, and having your assassin caught and killed.