Plausibility Check: Foederati forever

The Roman Empire survives a few extra centuries, but absorbs many barbarians and continues to be dominated by non-Romans.

Perhaps Attila invades Thrace and Anatolia after arriving, conveniently, after the series of earthquakes that hit them in 447 and 448.

Then he rules most of the Empire, plus some steppe areas, for a few years. After his death, squabbling groups of barbarians fight with each other, probably with the Franks or Visigoths, maybe a half-Germanic general in the East who fights for the Greeks or a crafty usurper from the west with little attachment to Romanness, coming out on top. They reunite a majority of the Empire; Britain probably falls to Anglo-Saxons and Brythons while the East probably falls to Persia.

From then on the Romans absorb groups like Germans and Berbers and Arabs and Turks. Catholicism and Latin/Greek, as well as holding the line against pagans and heretics in Europe and Africa and against the vast empire of Persia, become the unifying factors.

The borders of the Empire, of course, fluctuate as new groups come in or invade or the Romans reconquer certain areas.

What is needed to make all this possible?
 
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