Quote Originally Posted by cunctator
The reforms are also used to show changes in roman society and some technical progress, as better artillery, which can't be accelerated ad infinitum simply by conquering territories faster than in history. However they can happen much earlier in game than in RL.
Since province accquistion is the principal form of economic expansion in the game, I would argue that they can be tied to expansion. Technical process does not happen without economic inputs and neither does expansion of the military capacity.