Flavius Aetius was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire.
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Flavius Aetius was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire.
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Flavius Aetius was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades.
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Flavius Aetius managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian federates settled throughout the West.
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Flavius Aetius's father, Gaudentius, was a Roman general and described as a native of the province of Scythia.
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Flavius Aetius' mother, whose name is unknown, was a wealthy aristocratic woman of ancestry from Rome or some other city in the Italian peninsula.
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Some modern historians have suggested that Flavius Aetius's upbringing amongst militaristic peoples gave him a martial vigour not common in contemporary Roman generals.
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Flavius Aetius entered the service of the usurper as cura palatii and was sent by Joannes to ask the Huns for assistance.
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Shortly afterwards, Flavius Aetius returned to Italy with a large force of Huns to find that power in the west was now in the hands of Valentinian III and his mother Galla Placidia.
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Flavius Aetius sent back his army of Huns and in return obtained the rank of comes et magister militum per Gallias, the commander in chief of the Roman army in Gaul.
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In 426, Flavius Aetius arrived in southern Gaul and took command of the field army.
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Once Felix was dead, Flavius Aetius was the highest ranking amongst the magistri militiae, even if he had not yet been granted the title of patricius or the senior command.
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In 432 Flavius Aetius held the consulate, but Bonifacius was recalled to Italy and received warmly by Placidia.
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Flavius Aetius escaped to Pannonia and traveled to the court of his friend, Rua, the king of the Huns.
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Flavius Aetius then had Bonifacius' son-in-law, Sebastianus, who had succeeded Bonifacius as magister militum, exiled from Italy to Constantinople, bought the properties of Bonifacius, and married his widow Pelagia.
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From 433 to 450, Flavius Aetius was the dominant figure in the Western Empire, obtaining the rank of magnificus vir parens patriusque noster and playing the role of "protector" of Galla Placidia and Valentinian III while the Emperor was still young.
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That same year Flavius Aetius was probably in Armorica with Litorius to suppress a rebellion of the Bagaudae under a certain Tibatto.
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The year 437 saw his second consulship and the wedding of Valentinian and Licinia Eudoxia in Constantinople; it is probable that Flavius Aetius attended the ceremony that marked the restoration of the direct rule of the Emperor.
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Flavius Aetius returned to Gaul after Vetericus had stabilized the situation, and defeated the Visigoths and obtained a treaty.
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In 443, Flavius Aetius settled the remaining Burgundians in Sapaudia, south of Lake Geneva.
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Flavius Aetius's most pressing concern in the 440s was with problems in Gaul and Iberia, mainly with the Bagaudae.
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Flavius Aetius was recalled and Merobaudes defeated the Bagaudae of Aracellitanus in 443.
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The foederati were stopped in an ambush near Vicus Helena, where Flavius Aetius directed the operations while his commander Majorian fought with the cavalry.
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However, by 450 Flavius Aetius had already returned to good terms with the Franks.
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Flavius Aetius adopted him as his own son and sent him from Rome, where he had been an ambassador, to the Frankish court with many presents.
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However, the good terms between Romans and Huns did not last, as Attila wanted to attack Roman Gaul; he knew that Flavius Aetius was a serious obstacle to his enterprise, and tried to have him removed, but in 451, when the Huns attacked, Flavius Aetius was still the commander of the Roman army in Gaul.
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Theodoric died in the battle, and Flavius Aetius suggested his son Thorismund retreat to Tolosa to secure his throne, and persuaded Merovaeus to return to the lands of the Franks; for this reason it is said that Flavius Aetius kept all of the battlefield loot for his army.
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Valentinian III fled from the court at Ravenna to Rome; Flavius Aetius remained in the field but lacked the strength to offer battle, instead positioning his army at Bononia to block the roads through the Apennines to Ravenna and Rome.
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Edward Gibbon however says Flavius Aetius never showed his greatness more clearly in managing to harass and slow Attila's advance with only a shadow force.
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Flavius Aetius held Aetius responsible for the empire's troubles and accused him of trying to steal the empire from him.
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When Flavius Aetius attempted to defend himself from the charges, Valentinian drew his sword and together with Heraclius, struck Flavius Aetius on the head, killing him instantly.
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Flavius Aetius is generally viewed as a great military commander – indeed, he was held in such high esteem by the Eastern Roman Empire that he became known as the last true Roman of the west.
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Halsall argues that the black mark on Flavius Aetius' career was his mixed success in Spain, where the majority of the province was lost by 449, although he later rectified this.
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Flavius Aetius is generally considered to be the Roman consul to whom the Groans of the Britons was addressed, sometime between 447 and 454 AD.
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Flavius Aetius appears in several popular works of historical fiction, usually as a foil for Attila the Hun.
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