Wow, that's a big read already, thx guys.

Another one: if you take over a city from a non-Roman culture, make sure you demolish their temples from the start and build Roman temples. So 'sacred groves' for the Barbarians, 'temples of Bhaal' with the Carthiginians, Zoroaster with the selecueds and so forth.

This will speed up the cultural assimilation of the cities and their population.

Oh and once your cities become HUGE it's sometimes impossible to stop them from rioting; in that case stacking the entire city full of units of peasants is your best option.

Don't forget that one of the more important factors for happiness in a city is its distance to your capital. If your capital is, say, in Spain, your cities in the Middle East or Russian region WILL rebel. So adjust your capital from time to time to be at the centre of your empire.

Yea...another alternative to your cities getting huge and rebelling is to build full stacks of your best forces in that city. When you're sick of them whining and being bastards, move your forces out of the city until it rebels, then move back in again. Be sure to slaughter everyone. Those battles tend to be pretty costly in manpower, but sometimes it's the only way to make a city happy and productive again.

Something i might have missed: how do i move my capital?

Also: i'm in war with the Gauls, and those bitches offered me a ceasefire when i was besieging one of their cities. I didn't feel like it, so i made a counteroffer, saying they had to give up 2 of their cities.
I didn't expect them to even consider this option, but they asked me to pay an extra 7k+ and it was a deal. I counteroffered for 4k and they agreed (reluctantly it seems).

Now, is this good or is this bad? Maybe i would have been better of taking these cities by force, generally they suffer more than i do.

Also: both cities are packing peasants and town watch. What am i supposed to do with them? Discharge the ones i don't need and just keep a few for order?

Btw i restarted since i kinda messed up my first game. Got into a war without having a clue what a good infrastructure would be. So you can imagine i never had any cash. This game i seem to be the richest or one of the richest factions (that's why i could give those gauls money). Already have bigger cities than in my previous game (so i can finally build better units and use my previous ones as bait ).

One last thing: i keep getting offers for trade rights. What does it do/mean?

Trade rights mean you can trade with another faction. It's good for your income, but also good for theirs off course. I started playing RTW again last week, and I found out it really pays to conquer Rhodos. The Colossus wonder will give a nice boost to all your sea trade. Also, since public order is so troublesome, conquering the Peleponesos with the Statue of Zeus wonder will help you in that department.

J, if you took those 2 cities with only spending some money (and assuming you don't have money issues, which is what it sounds like) you just came out like a champ. I would agree... disband those units except for what you need to maintain order. Be sure to destroy and non-friendly structures to increase public order. If they're in dangerous areas you may wish to move some real forces in (or build them) in case of a counter attack.

Trade rights improve your trade income. Overall I always accept trade rights. To me the income I get is worth the income they get.

And you can move your capital in the city details screen. Click the city, then click the button left below the construction/recruitment screen to go to the detailed city overview of public order, religion, income, etc.

Iirc the "set this city as your capital" button is there somewhere.

You can also change your faction heir if you have a particulary crap faction heir and a young rising star in your family. I only change faction heirs once my "original" bloodline is gone (ie Scipii or Julii or Brutii), just because it's cool to keep the original bloodline, but don't be afraid to do it if you feel like it.

Look out that you don't do it too often, tho. A family member who has been 'demoted' to non-faction heir will get some negative traits because of it. Sour grapes!

In line with what Derf says about it being a great deal: diplomatic relations are linked to what you do in-game. Not just towards the other factions directly, but your behavior in general.

If you exterminate a lot of cities, use a lot of spies and assassins and move armies through enemy territories without a military access agreement, your reputation will dwindle rapidly.

he first few times I played I never understood why I was always branded "very untrustworthy" when I never broke alliances, always wanted to trade/buy regions, paid a lot of tributes/gifts to other factions etc.

Then i realized it was because I had a reputation of mass genocide. I still think it's kinda lame, tho. It's not because I will utterly destroy anyone who attacks me unprovoked that I alm untrustworthy, per se. You know? it doesn't mean I will attack anyone at random, just that I will kick major ass when someone attacks me. =P

Small update:

I was busy fighting with the Gauls for a while. And the senate kept giving me orders to annoy Carthage and Greece. In the end i had to take a few Carthage settlements, while i was still busy with the Gaul. That was no problem because my economy was still running great.

But then something unexpected happened: the Spanish (allies) suddenly decided to besiege a city. I could deal with a war on 2 fronts, but wasn't ready for a war on 3 fronts. I needed a bit of time to regroup and had to postphone some of my planned captures, but in the end i managed to take the last Carthagenian city, that was 1 thing less to worry about. And i could start harassing the Spanish in their rear. Only downside was that my money had gone down from 70k to 30k or so. I was fearing i wasn't doing so well, untill i noticed i was still the 2nd richest faction. Heh.

So now i've quickly disposed of the Gauls and i'm squeezing the life out of the Spanish. I think i've assassinated half of their family tree lol. Economy is running fine again and i'm up over 100k gold. By far the richest faction, also the most advanced.

Only 'problems' i'm having is rioting cities, it is hard to keep control indeed. And i seem to have quite some relatively useless family members

Basically i'm just having to exterminate cities because i'm unable to manage them otherwise. Ah well, as long as that's the most annoying i'm doing great i think.

After defeating Spain, i'll have to reeavaluate to see what i'll do: brutii are a massive power, i'm going to see if i can bribe people to attack them maybe. don't know if that really works in the game, but it would be nice