"Forts" Topic

Bit of a general question about forts here. Were forts (outside of walls defending settlements or cutting across major accessways) used by the Greeks, Alexandrian-era Macedonians, Successors, Carthaginians or Iberians, and when did the Romans begin building forts, temporary or permanent, in earnest?

Most Greek cities had a citadel, as did Rome. One famous Roman story was of a Celtic invasion – the Romans went up to the citadel but left the old men behind. They were killed. Then the Celts found a way up the wall but the citadel and city were saved by the sacred geese honking. See link There were a number of cases where the citadels in Greek cites were occupied by enemies or one political faction. Look up the Cadmea in Thebes for example en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmea

Let me ask you, are forts ever built in any place that isn't a settlement or important transportation hub/nexus?

And the people you asked about built forts to defend those places you asked about

Well, there are still the remains of Macedonian forts in Afghanistan. Some are rather intact, and others were rebuilt, or added to/reinforced over the past 2K years.

But yeah, Greeks (and many others) built forts.

Sorry, @dragon6, perhaps I should have phrased it better – were there self-contained forts placed outside of settlements? Obviously forts have been placed on transport routes, but were there permanent forts in such positions in the ancient world?

There's the Athenian frontier fort system – see link for an example.

For the earliest Roman forts, start with link and link