Carmonians

CARMONIANS. 2 Esdras 15:30 makes reference to the Carmonians (or Carmanians). These were a people from Carmania, a fertile province of ancient Persia, situated on the N shore of the Persian Gulf (modern Kerman). It is a mountainous region, separated by a desert from Persis (SW part of Iran, or Persia) in the W. In addition to the Kerman province there was also a Kerman city, both named after the Kermani (or Germani) tribe. In a list of Pers. tribes Herodotus (i, 125) mentions the Germanii (i.e., the Carmanians). Carmania, with the Sagartians, the Utians (also Yautiya or Yuti), and other tribes, formed a satrapy and paid tribute to Darius (Herodotus iii, 93). The Carmanians and the Utians are also mentioned by Darius as inhabiting a district in Persia (Behistun III, 40; cited in EBr, XVII [1964], 549). At a later period Antiochus I Soter attempted to introduce Hellenism into Persia. Among Gr. towns founded there was Alexandria in Carmania (Pliny vi, 107; Ptolemy vi, 8, 14). Still later, the Satrap Numenius of Mesene (S. Babylonia) defeated the Persians on the shore of Carmania on sea and land (Pliny vi, 152).

Bibliography

2 Esdras (The Apocrypha); A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (1948); IDB (1962); R. N. Frye, The Heritage of Persia (1963); EBr (1964).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

kar-mo’-ni-anz; the King James Version Carmanians: A people mentioned in one of the visions--"an horrible vision" (2 Esdras 15:30 ff)--of the "Apocalypse of Esdras." Their country, Carmania, was an extensive province of Asia lying between Parthia and Ariana and the North side of the Persian Gulf, and extending to Drangiana and Gedrosia on the East and to the river Bagradas and Persis on the West. It is frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, among others by Strabo and Arrian, who describe the inhabitants as closely resembling the Medians and Persians in manners and customs. In the passage cited they are intended to denote a fierce and warlike people, being described as "raging in wrath as wild boars of the wood" and associated with the "dragons of Arabia."