This is just my personal opinion, but I really, really disliked EU Rome. It was the first paradox game I got, since when I first saw the summary, it seems like something that I was really looking out for, open world sandbox game in a interesting time period. I really wanted to like it but I just can't. It wasn't until I think I saw in game manual somewhere that said something like "unlike other eu games where the take place in the entire world, Rome confines you to the region of europe" that I went and spotted out Eu3 and found it to be considerably easier to get into.
In my opinion, even Crusader Kings (the first one) is better than Rome (and I personally found the first ck to be a bit bland compared to eu3, although CK2 was very fun).
I HAD attempted to get back into EU Rome a few times. But having played Eu3 and Ck2, it's nearly impossible to get used to the tedious mechanics there. Although if you have the patience, you might find something that I didn't.