DONT mind any of this talk about fighting larger enemies. Take your general on a tour of your territory knocking the shit out of some rebels. Try autocalc, try manual battle, try small armies and big armies, good odds and bad odds but ALWAYS rebels.

I've taken a lowly no star governor, given him a couple of mercs and let him fight a p*ss poor band of rebel skirmishers and hes gotten Imperator while my 10 star general wins odds 5 - 1 with Heroic Victories aplenty and gets nothing!

Rebels rebels rebels! A heroic victory over them helps, but so long as you're rebel busting you're good to go...