Moved Imperator: Rome to SATA SSD. Timed load again and it still took 3-3.5 minutes to get to main menu.
30-45 seconds of the loading screen art before the quote appears, then the text cycles a few times for 2min then 30-45 seconds of the progress spinner frozen not animating until the main menu comes up.
I loaded all my other Paradox games and they all load slow too but Imperator Rome is the slowest.