AH challenge: restore the Western Roman Empire

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to restore the Western Roman Empire with a PoD of after 568 AD when the Lombards invaded and took most of Italy from the Byzantines. To make it easier, you don't have to include all Roman territory formerly belonging to the WRE such as Gaul or the Iberian peninsula. A puppet state to the Byzantines that just rules Italy south of the Po river counts (although you get bonus points if the new WRE includes more formerly Imperial territory).

The Carolingian Empire staying together does not count and neither does the Holy Roman Empire. It preferably has to have a Greek/Byzantine puppet Emperor although any tribal leader vassalized by Constantinople will do as well for me. More bonus points if this WRE, or Italian Empire if you will, outlives its patron assuming butterflies are minimal and the ERE still falls at some point in the Middle Ages.
 
The Emperor Maurice is never overthrown, and his second son Tiberius becomes Emperor of the West, in let's say 609AD, following his father's death. Tiberius' brother Theodosius meanwhile assumes command of the East. Both Theodosius and Tiberius retain their father's policies of religious tolerance, while officially supporting the Council of Chalcedon.

The two new Emperors benefit greatly from their father's legacy. Maurice defeats the Avars totally in 605, and restores the old Danube frontier, including outposts in Dacia, and solidifies Roman control right along the Sava river. At the time of his death, he is planning to lead a grand expedition to restore south-central Italy to the Empire. Upon his father's death, young Tiberius, a competent general, leads this army to Ravenna up Italy, defeating the Lombards en route.

The Eastern Empire, thanks to the religious tolerance of Theodosius and Maurice's Persian alliance, is able to bat off the Islamic invasions without too much difficulty. The Muslims are forced to make do with Arabia. In the West, Tiberius III defeats a revolt by the Exarch Heraclius, and abolishes the Exarchates, replacing them with central control from Ravenna. The remaining Lombard footholds are removed from Italy, and the slow process of Italian recovery begins. Meanwhile, the West Romans establish a strong alliance with the Franks, and with Frankish support, reconquer Iberia in around 650. Though Gaul will never be restored to the Empire, it rules much of the Western Mediterranean basin.

The Eastern Empire remains strong and powerful, but by 700, underlying religious tensions, coupled with frequent Persian wars and the deposition of the Maurician Dynasty lead to a collapse. Egypt and Syria become independent kingdoms, and the Balkans fall again, to the Avars. Persia too breaks up, leading to a vacuum of power, in which the East Romans, Arabs, Persians, and Monophysite kingdoms vie for power. Eventually, after a period of East Roman revival, a group of steppe barbarians descend, and conquer the region piecemeal, ending with Constantinople in roughly 1400.

Challenge met?
 
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