The historian Bryan Ward-Perkins asks the following question:
“Was one urban civilization (that of Rome) transformed into another (that of late
medieval and modern Europe) by a process of death (followed by a rebirth later in the Middle Ages), or by a process of gradual transformation within a living organism.” How would you answer this question?

The succession of the Rome culture was a gradual transformation into the German tribes and not a sudden one.

Explanation:

The successor states of culture of the west or of the culture and civilization of Rome was taken over by the kingdoms and the states which were established by the German tribes.

This succession and this transformation was a gradual transformation and not a sudden change where the German tribes over threw the western culture and took over these states.