Flavius Aetius was one of the larger-than-life characters of the late Roman Empire hailed as "the last of the Romans" by Edward Gibbon author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Between AD 433 and 454 untill he was murdered by the most powerful person in the Roman Empire He shaped both domestic and foreign policy and fought a series of crucial battles against the barbarians and also other Romans in civii wars in not seeking the emperorship himself