[6][note 1][7] Gratian's usurpation coincided with a major barbarian invasion of Gaul; on the last day of December 406, an army of Vandals, Alans and Suebi (Sueves) had crossed the frozen Rhine.
[8] During 407 they spread across northern Gaul towards Boulogne, and Zosimus wrote that troops in Britain feared an invasion across the English Channel.
[11] This hypothesis has been rejected by modern historians such as Thomas Burns, who argues that Stilicho was dependent on the Gallic army to deal with the rebellion.
It was only the heavy losses suffered by the Gallic field armies as a result of the Vandal invasion that forced Stilicho to reconsider his response to the British rebellion.
[14] Unhappy with this, the troops killed him after four months of rule[15] and elected Constantine III as their leader in early February.