Total War: Rome II – Emperor Edition – Guide to Politics

How to Politic

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• Do not ever upgrade enemy generals (p.s. characters not of your dynasty are an enemy).
• Upgrading skills/stats/perks also increases gravitas, most of the time, which will lower your political power.
• Make them all generals, because even low gravitas character can/will influence political power.
• Game Logic: if they’re not over-seas, fighting wars, they’re messing with your political power.
• If the enemy dynasty (political group) has too many characters, sent them off to die in wars.
• You’ll take the hit for a military loss, since you’re in charge, but this is good for the long game.
• Retire/hire at least one high/mid gravitas generating character, who will act as a statesmen.
• It helps with the long game and allows you to counter mistakes, like all-hands-on-board wars.

Notes 

• The idea is to remove/minimize enemy influence while increasing your own, which also increases with military victories.
• If you kill all members of a political/dynasty group at the start, it dies off for good; but will be replace eventually.
• Later on, killing all members of a political/dynasty just has a new member spawn; rebellion is the only fix.