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1. The use of "barbarians" in Roman armies led to a decline in Rome's ability to defend itself.
2. The Western Empire ran off a plunder economy, Raubwirtschaft, without the continued expansion the empire ran out of money.
3. The Antonine Plague around 165 CE.
If you subscribe to Pirenne's theory, that the empire simply transformed; ie, Frankish kingdoms, Visigothic kingdoms, Odoacer kingdom. Which continued until the moslem invasions during the 7th century.
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