Guys, I think your overlooking the fact that the Romans in history WERE the super-powers. It's not so much that the units are over balanced; CA actaully did alot of research in to the tactics and unit strengths of the time to insure that they had realism.

For the original poster: You took Spartan Hoplites from 500BC and compared them to troops, the 1st Cohort, of 200 AD or so. That's 700 years of tactical advancement as well as material enhancement. The spartans had a certain tactic that they used and the Romans had, by far, surpassed them in their use of weapons and shields.

This goes for almost any other empire they faced. Rome didn't start loosing battles until close to their fall, and that's only because of the decline of the economy and the leadership. The thing the romans had to their advantage was their ability to absorb different ideas.

So, no, I'm not surprised to see a couple cohorts moe through a phalanx of Spartan Hoplites. I would be surprised to see Hastati do it, though.