Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

Yet if you think of it, the valley floor offers no protection whatsoever.
I think that's why the "valley acting as a rampart" implies the Romans were on the top of the ridges surrounding a valley

But the text says angustias loci - so a narrow place.

The phrase is also used by Livy (36.18: ad naturam et angustias loci) to describe Antiochus' position in the pass at Thermopylae in 191BC. I think we can agree this was not on top of a ridge!

Livy also uses the phrase (34.39: nam propter angustias loci) to describe a battle in a narrow street.

Tacitus must surely be describing a position in a narrow confined space between hills. Not on a ridge.

Last post from me on this topic for sure.

Sorry to hear that!