Civil Wars and endless usurpers

[LDiCesare]

I'm playing as Rome.
I love the game so far, but civil wars are causing me a big problem.
Every time I play, I get a lot of civil wars. I'm currently in the 50th year or more of a civil war where, periodically, new pretenders come up.
I have had Claudius, Fabius, then Flaminius and Pompilius, then another Claudius (nasty, this one) and someone whose name I forgot, and then another Fabius and Horatius. I get it that there are many civil wars, but what with everybody else attacking me, it makes for a rather unpleasant time. When I finally got rid of every rebel in Italy, suddenly I get another rebellion and end up besieging Rome again.
I'm turn 144, year 167BC, and spent about 1/3rd of the game in civil war. Considering how it's going on, I suppose this will just never end as there's no way I can prevent new usurpers from showing up.
Is it just me or is the game doing that to others?
Should I wait till around 40BC before forming the empire? Which means the good strategy is to be as decadent as possible in order not to progress beyond glorious republic? But then you probably end up being so decadent that it'll be impossible to switch to empire later on?
Or is the problem not with my expansion (I really tried not to go too fast, and the civil war came as a surprise without forewarning that I could identify) but just the game being a bit heavy on revolts?

[loki100]

Best advice is when as glorious republic stop expanding and get loyalty 75+ in all regions.then swap, keep as much pop in culture and you should get through young & stable in 15-20 turns.

Now you are a glorious empire, sooner or later age related decadence will become a problem, but that is after t300 or so

[guanotwozero]

Best advice is when as glorious republic stop expanding and get loyalty 75+ in all regions.then swap, keep as much pop in culture and you should get through young & stable in 15-20 turns.

However that raises another problem - when your tribal neighbours keep declaring war on you, it's hard to fight that war without grabbing more territory in the current game mechanics. This highlights the need to fight neighbours without expanding, e.g. an external expedition to destroy their army then withdrawing inside your borders when the threat is removed.

[LDiCesare]

Ok, so I must play more slowly, thanks for the advice.
I had already "actively not defended" some territory I conquered in Gaul, so whoever wanted it could take it back as I didn't want to suffer consequences of taking that land. It's indeed sad you have to conquer every place your army walks through.
However, isn't a series of 5 revolts in a row a bit over the top? The game might as well have thrown a "game over" at me.

[13obo]

If you check Rome's history as an empire then you'll know you're actually experiencing few civil wars!

[LDiCesare]

Still about usurpers: Any idea why usurpers don't start with the same relationships (peace/war) as their initial country?
I'm currently fighting Carthage. I see a Carthage Usurper region, so the poor AI is in civil war. However, I'm not at war with them. Did I not pay enough attention, or do the usurpers start with a fresh, peace with everyone, diplomacy?

[PDiFolco]

Best advice is when as glorious republic stop expanding and get loyalty 75+ in all regions.then swap, keep as much pop in culture and you should get through young & stable in 15-20 turns.

Now you are a glorious empire, sooner or later age related decadence will become a problem, but that is after t300 or so

Yes, agreed. As Rome Empire always first manage Loyalty then expand when you got >80 everywhere. When warring/expanding first get objectives, and always try to get regions in same province to form them, and only one at a time. Then put a couple legions to build roads&fort and fight possible revolts, develop 1 region at a time with province resources. When loyalty is good enough rinse& repeat