Gaining a stable income with the barbarian factions

[Calypze]

My impression from playing and observing is that, compared to the Hellenistic and Western Mediterranean factions, it is very hard to get a stable income with the barbarian factions (maybe especially for Sweboz), maybe except for the Pritanoi because they start off fairly secure and isolated. But even so, the Pritanoi also have a more limited building rooster compared to the Hellenistic and Western Mediterranean factions, limiting the amount of income they can get.

Am I correct, or am I doing something wrong?

[Shoebopp]

My impression from playing and observing is that, compared to the Hellenistic and Western Mediterranean factions, it is very hard to get a stable income with the barbarian factions (maybe especially for Sweboz), maybe except for the Pritanoi because they start off fairly secure and isolated. But even so, the Pritanoi also have a more limited building rooster compared to the Hellenistic and Western Mediterranean factions, limiting the amount of income they can get.

Am I correct, or am I doing something wrong?

You are correct. This is because barbarian factions tend to be landlocked, which means fewer ports and sea trade. Also, barbarian factions, even the Iberian ones, aren't situated near good mining clusters. Meanwhile, Pergamon is right next to the immensely rich Western Anatolian mining cluster, while the Seleucids own the vast potential of the Iranian Plateau mining cluster. Finally, barbarian factions simply cannot build the highest levels of infrastructure the same way the civilized factions can.

[stupides Throwawayoui]

if you want money as barbarian factions, your best bet(imo) is raiding
most if not all rebel provinces have a garrison, and a field army, and the field army is usually loyal to his own province and doesn't interfere with other provinces(though I've seen it sometimes where im attacking a city, and an independent army comes from another region to support the city)

what I almost always do, is that i defeat this field army, and then send my generals with at least 1 unit to raid and devastate the region, until I then decide to finally capture it
Ideally you'd do this with regions you don't intend to take right away, or if they're too backwards and not useful, or if you need the early game money urgently to build up your capital a bit.