Carmonians (Hastings' Dictionary)

A people occupying an extensive dis- trict north of the entrance to the Persian Gulf, between Persis on the west and Gedrosia on the east. Accounts of the country and of the people, who are said to have resembled the Medes and Persians in customs and language, are to be found in Strabo (xv. p. 726), Ptolemy (vi. 8), Am. Mar- cellinus (xxiii. 6), and other ancient writers. The name survives in the present town and district of Kirman. In the above verse, which is one of the late additions to the Second Book of Esdras, it is said that the Carmanians shall come forth like wild boars, shall join battle with the ' dragons of Arabia,' and lay waste a portion of the land of the Assyrians. The reference is probably to Sapor I. (A.D. 240-273), the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, who, after defeating Valerian, overran Syria, and destroyed Antioch. He was subsequently driven back acroa.'s the Euphrates by Oda!nathus and Zenobia (cf. Lupton in Speaker's Com. ad loc). The errone- ous form Carmonians, which is supported by the best Latin MSS, is possibly due to confusion witli Carmona, an important city in Spain (so .James in TexU and Studies, III. iL p. Ixx). H. A. WHITE. CARNAIM, Kapi't,;', 1 Mac 5-"- (Kapvitv) ■"• «, and Camion (ri) Kapi'ioi'j, 3 Mac Vi"- ■'' (UVni Carnain). — The ancient Ashteroth-Karnaim (which see).