It’s rather useless to analogize with a non-event. The capital of the Roman Empire was moved from Rome to New Rome (a.k.a. Constantinople) in 324.
The retirement of the last Western Augustus to a villa near Naples in 476 happened at the behest of the Eastern Augustus Zeno, who decided (rightly, I think) that the system of parallel Augusti led to bad governance, and (wrongly, I think) that Imperial interests in Italy could be adequately handled by the King of the Ostrogoths in his role as Patrician of the Romans. No Empire ‘fell’ in 476.
Justinian reasserted direct Imperial control over Italy, Spain and North Africa in the sixth century, though this was not long-lived, except in the area around Ravenna.
The ‘Fall of Rome’ like ‘the Byzantine Empire’ represents not an historical reality, but an invention of Gibbon, who wanted to claim the ‘glories of (pagan) Rome’ for the “Enlightenement” by denying the continuity of the Empire at some convenient point.
The Roman Empire, throughly Christian, continued until, having dwindled to a city-state through neglect of the fleet, betrayals by allies, and a failure to embrace firearms, it fell to the Turks in 1453.
Do you have any book or listins of books that might flesh out these ideas? This is quite fascinating for me. Thanks in advance.
You are right, the Roman state (Kingdom, Republic, and Empire) lasted for 2200 years, may we be so lucky...