Flavius Aëtius (c. 396–454), dux et patricius, is a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire.
He is an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades (433-454).
He manages policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire.
Notably, he gathers a large Roman and barbarian army to win the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, ending the famous Hunnic invasion of Attila in 451.
Along with his rival Count Boniface, he has often been called "the last of the Romans".
Edward Gibbon refers to him as "the man universally celebrated as the terror of Barbarians and the support of the Republic" for his victory at the Catalaunian Plains.
