Any chance the ERE will look more Northwards? Taking more of the Crimea or Ukraine area as the decades pass? This would allow them to always have a breadbasket region for the empire and with the Black Sea being a Roman lake. I don't know how much food Anatolia supplies or Rome's food situation.
I find it hard to think (if they reach that far) that the ERE wouldn't try for the oil fields at Baku. Getting through the Caucuses to get there would be a project of decades probably, but it should definitely be on their list once oil starts becoming a bigger thing. I guess it depends on the...