Defences of the western Roman empire in 5th century

[Eleatic Guest]

Your probably right. The only difference, is that all those foederati didn't wanted to reunite the empire, but only a small portion of it.

My thoughts exactly. The difference between Roman 'factionalist' generals of the 4th century and the Germanic tribes of the 5th were that the Germanic leaders were driven by ethnic particularism. At their heart lie their tribe, not the Imperium.

That again stresses the point that when you want real political unity it needs more than superficial consensus in terms of sterile 'interests', which are volatile by nature. It needs strong cultural, religious and ethnic ties which gives the cohort direction and a sense of community when things gets confusing.