ITT: generals who were born in the wrong time and place
>>2969860
When do you think Flavius Aetius would have fit in best? He did quite well with managing the era of the Western Roman Empire he was at, but he was unable to stop the decline due to his assassination by the Emperor Valentinianus III, and perhaps numerous other challenges that would have obstructed the Empire's recovery. When Sidonius Apollinaris heard about Aetius' assassination by the Emperor, he remarked, "Whether well or not, I do not know. But know that you have cut off your right hand with your left." It's possible that had Aetius been born in an earlier time, he could have been a powerful conquerer, in the style of Caesar or Traianus, rather than the great defensive leader he was during the fifth century AD.
>>2970516
It really bums me out how Valentinianus III lashed out in a jealous spate of madness and ended the Western Empire's best chance for longevity
Hannibal
>>2970529
Did Valentinian think that Aetius was trying to depose him, to become Emperor himself? Is there any evidence for that?
>>2970579
After the huns collapsed on the death of Attila the emperor no longer favored Aetius, believing him to have reached the point of his usefulness.
Aetius pressured the emperor for a marriage between his son and the emperor's daughter in order that he might become Valentinian's heir, being that the Emperor was without a son.
This was a factor in the Emperor resenting Aetius, and Aetius's jealous enemies in the senate encouraged the emperor to take an action against him. (the most ardent of these was the senator Petronius Maximus, who it is worth noting succeeds Valentinianus III on his own assassination.)
The source for this is the Cambridge Ancient History volume 14.
>>2970516
What about Majorian?