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).