Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[dadlamassu]

I see that I was not clear enough, sorry. If my commander told me to "choose a position approached by a narrow defile…" against a numerically superior enemy force I would try to select a position at or near the narrowest section of the defile so that my flanks rested on the terrain features that make the defile thus forcing the enemy to advance to contact on a frontage equal to my own. Ideally the defile should be wider at the enemy end so that the enemy has to reduce frontage as the force progresses down the defile in the hope that they become a disorganised massed target. So I agree that the best position is in the defile.

The other translations for "rampart" make more sense and I take the point about "wives".