Flavius Aetius (; 391–454),
dux et patricius, commonly called simply
Aetius or
Aëtius, was a
Roman general of the closing period of the
Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades (433-454). He managed policy in regard to the attacks of
barbarian federates settled throughout the Western Roman Empire. Notably, he mustered a large Roman and allied (
foederati) army to stop the
Huns in the
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, ending the devastating
Hunnic invasion of
Attila in 451.