[Tribune7]

Subsequent archaeological research revealed "IT" continued to putt along until 535

Where are you getting this from??

[muawiyah]

Read history ~ keep up on archaeological discoveries.

As long as there was a single government over the Italian peninsula, that was ROME.

They didn't turn into a Dark Ages wasteland until the Dark Ages started in what appears to have been the Spring of the year 535 AD.

Earlier writers confounded four events ~ the arrival of German usurpers, the move to Ravenna, the arrival of the Dark Ages, a minor sacking of Rome.