You want ME to pay? Really?

[Antonius Rex]

You would need a ton of Greek city states then. Not sure if that's a bad thing

Speaking of which, I always liked playing as the Greek factions. Ever since Rome 1 I've thought I'd rather like an expansion/dlc campaign that focuses in more detail on Greece and the surrounding colonized areas during the heroic or (more historically) the classical age. Add in A LOT more of the city states like Corinth and colonies and go into detail with the subtle differences in government and military styles. Maybe a map that ranges from the Rhodes/the coast of Asia Minor to the Western coast of Greece, or even magna grecia if they feel like stretching the map out more. Of course the armies would still be much more similar to each other than in the base game, so maybe the return of Shogun 2 style Hero units for uniqueness, which would probably fit well within the scenario of the Greek heroic age. In fact now that I type this all out it sounds like it could work really well as a total conversion of S2. Too bad I have absolutely no idea how to mod...

Oh, but back to the original topic. I too see that the diplomats are rather irrational. It's always either threatening me and/or asking for ridiculous sums in exchange for deals, or a random one town faction from the other side of the map will willingly offer to be my vassal even though I'm much too far away to ever reasonably protect them. Though some of it may have to do with the balance of power system. The indicator on diplomacy never seems quite right. I can batter an enemy and destroy 95% of their military but in diplomacy their relative strength is about equal to mine. If this is a factor in their decisions, it could be behind some of the more foolish actions.