I played a great Second Punic war HAN PBEM game as Roman a couple years ago, and honestly, never noticed this issue. We didn't knew it existed.
I was Rome and I can assure you I didn't had an easy going at all... Playing against Hannibal is hell!
The game was very balanced and tense.
Maybe you and your rival can think is some house rules or something... But in any case I don't think the bug gives a game breaking advantage. It seems to have been around for years and nobody noticed before...
Regards