The Empire's historical relationship with Germanic tribes was sometimes hostile, at other times cooperative, but ultimately fatal, as it was unable to prevent those tribes from assuming a dominant role in the relationship.
A relación histórica do Imperio coas tribos xermanas fora unhas veces hostil, outras de cooperación, pero finalmente resultaron fatais, xa que o imperio non puido evitar que as tribos asumisen co tempo un papel dominante na relación.