When in history did the first real empires start appearing, in the Indo-european region. I think that's right. From Britain to North Africa and from Gades to the further reaches of eastern India. If one wanted a RTS modelling the rise from the city states to the fullest might of the Roman Empire, how far back could you go? 1200 BC? And I mean, potential for empire, not just, there's pharoahs in Egypt, a Egyptian empire, not in history, but in the furthest stretch of the imagination, could have waged war with another empire, perhaps the spartan empire, or Athenian, or a earlier greek empire? What about in Africa, Gaul, and Iberia? Was there enough people in these regions to really make an empire?

I guess, to really boil it down, if someone were to make a mod on a miniscale, say the Iberian peninsula, and the hypothetical rise of a single nation there, when could it happen? Or are there truly massive barriers in history that prevented this from happening?