Wow _Aetius_, that's rough. I still compliment you, however, for sticking it out and fighting your way back. That takes guts.

I had a fairly epic collapse involving my own faction happen to me when I'd been playing MTW for only a few months. I had led a resurgent Byzantium to glory, recapturing most of the lands once held by the Romans and restoring the Empire. By the end of the Early period, I'd managed to gain control of all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean (save for the Papacy, whom I left alone), and had conquered most of the continent west of the Rhine.

I made a fatal mistake, however, when I decided to invade Britain. Specifically, I committed the error of having the Emperor (one of the Constantines, I think) personally lead the expedition. (This was before I was really aware of the effect of your faction leader being cut off from his lands. Oops!) Well you can guess what happened next: As soon as Constantine had crossed the Channel with his army, the entire empire suffered mass rebellions. Some factions re-emerged, and other kingdoms took advantage of my weakness and invaded some of my more vulnerable provinces.

I reluctantly ended up ceding large portions of my empire, instead focusing my efforts on preservering my heartlands. Of course, this loss of territory spurred yet more rebellions. Fortunately, I was able to crush most of them, but it stretched me nearly to the breaking point. Things were very touch-and-go for a while; I was hanging on for dear life the entire time.

It was at least 10 years before I finally started to get the sitution back under control. After all was said and done, I possessed little more than the provinces I started with, although I did manage to retain control of the Levant. And of course, around the time I got the situation truly stabilized, the Golden Horde showed up in Georgia....