Good questions, Zomby_Woof, I'll deal with them in turn.

Quote Originally Posted by Zomby_Woof
Personally, I like the idea of always giving map information to the other factions. Quite simply, the Western Roman Empire was preyed on historically and usually is in-game; if we can make that more dramatic, all the better.
I agree but given the responses, let's leave this to each reigning Emperor to decide.

Another thing I'd like to adress is the reconquering of once Roman cities. For instance, if the Celts or Saxons were to take Eburacum and completely de-Romanizes it over a course of time would it still be okay to go ahead and repossess that territory?
Absolutely. The aim of the game is to re-unify the Empire as a whole - if WRE starter provinces are lost, they should be targeted just as ERE starter ones.

Lastly, are our reigns to be in-character? For instance, if we have a devout Christian emperor should we play the game as if he was actually in charge by attempting to convert the Empire soley to Christianity or if we had an emperor who had the "Fears Barbarians" trait should we make our frontier border well-defended?
I think we should have artistic licence. Sometimes, I find a game writes itself in a certain way - for example, in my turn in the ERE PBM, I decided to focus the story (and action) on a group of up and coming generals, sidelining the Emperor (I think in-game I was worried he would become disloyal and cause an inexplicable civil war). TinCow suggested one idea of telling a story through the eyes of an ancillary. So, I would say try to make your reign into something with a good narrative, but it does not have to be told from the perspective of the Emperor. He could be an "Old King Log" as was Graves' Claudius.

Lastly, I'd like to ask about the raids against barbarians. From my understanding one is allowed to take a barbarian settlement but one cannot leave a garrison of any type in that settlement? So in theory you can send an army as deep into the frontier as you like just so long as you don't leave a garrison in any conquered territory? That seems like a good way to bring in easy revenue, even if you're not allowed to completely wipe out some of the "one-territory-non-hordeable" factions like the Alemanni or Burgundii.
A deep raid was another one of TinCow's story ideas - he was thinking of a general searching for an Amazonian princess or something. So if it is done for a story-based reason, fine. Personally, I would not do it to amass a war chest in the first few turns but even that could be a legitimate motive if the whole thing falls apart and we desperately need money to survive a calamity (not that I expect it with our present list of players).

Anywho, as the hoplites used to say, "You can sign me up for the back."
Good stuff. I'll add you to the list and produce a shortened list of the houserules in the morning.