Bribing? Bah!

In a Scipii campaign I waited forever for someone else to start the war (180 BC-ish) and the Brutii came close but just couldn't get over the hump. Eventually I just started taking armies over from my eastern campaigns, sailed them over, and amphibiously invaded Thrace (from Byzantium), Greece (from Corinth), Spain (Corduba), Gaul (Massilia), and Italy (Croton).

The next 30 years were grind-it-out slugfests with endless AI armies and only a few cities to show for it before I really started going on the offensive. Much more fun than pitiful bribing.