Indeed, I can easily create 4 or 5 army stacks, while 2 are sufficient to deal with Capua, Regium and Carthage.
But my experience of RSII 2.2 is that I needed to save money for expensive buildings. I could easily spend all money each turn to buildings and troops and I found mercenaries pretty expensive. So something must have gone wrong.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
*** Does anyone know how to reduce tax income easily?