Does /his/ not understand that by the even the late 4th century the line between Germanics and Romans in the west had blurred until the two were almost unrecognizable from one another? Roman armies were made up of a mixture of ethnic Germans who had settled west/south of the Rhine and Danube, supplemented by mercenaries who were even less romanized. Romans had been dressing in Germanic clothing and Germans had been adopting Roman battle tactics and integrating themselves into the Roman political system almost entirely by that point besides being granted the title of Augustus or Caesar. Even when the west was in terminal decline Germanic chieftans wanted to work within the Roman system. Alaric sacked Rome because he wanted food, money, and a promotion. Gaiseric wanted to get some loot sure but he also wanted to put his own puppet emperor on the throne that he could influence just like Ricimer would end up doing. Even when territories started breaking away from the empire wholesale it was more a case of existing Roman aristocrats and landlords paying taxes to the new guy for protection than random looting/pillaging, though that did happen in some cases.