[ZULU]

I agree with you. Theodoric wanted to resuscitate the Roman Empire. The fact that his people were Arian Christians and the native Italians were Orthodox western Christians frustrated his efforts, as did the machinations of Justinian which destroyed his successor.

The "Dark Ages" were dark realtive to the depth of our knowledge of them. The Goths, etc, were frequently highly Romanized by that time as the Romans had become Germanicized. What many scholars think really created the collapse of western civilization was the eruption of Isalm and the closing of sea routes between western Europe and Byzantium by Islamic expansion into Iberia, Sicily, southern Italy and the Mediterranean area.

Most of the barbarian invaders were seeking incorporation into the empire, not the destruction of the empire. Charlemagne himself had himself crowned a Roman Emperor.

As for the civlization of the Turks, I suggest you read about the sack of Constantinople. Murder, rape, desecration of religious places and mass enslavement of the population was the outcome.

[muawiyah]

Yes, all that and then some, but it could have been much, much worse.

[Cronos]

Most of the barbarian invaders were seeking incorporation into the empire, not the destruction of the empire. Charlemagne himself had himself crowned a Roman Emperor.
you're combining 400 years in one sentence. THe early German barbarians wanted the riches of the Roman lands and conquered them. They then realised that this was a superior culture they captured (like hte Romans capturing Greece said 'Captive Greece encaptivated Rome', but even more so) and became completely Roman. Rome did not become Germanicized as the Germans had nothign culturally to offer Rome. The Germans became Romanized whether within or without hte Empire. Modern Western civilisation is nearly exclusively Roman with Christian morals.