Carmo
- a city of Hispania Baetica, now Carmona, Liv. 33, 21, 8 (acc. to Cod. Bamb.); Auct. B. Alex. 57.—Carmonenses, its inhabitants, Caes. B. C. 2, 19.
CARMOΚάρμων, , Strab. 3. p. 141: Eth. Carmonensis: Carmona), a strongly fortified city of Hispania Baetica, ENE. of Hispalis, at the distance of 22 M.P. on the road to Emerita (Itin. Ant. p. 414), on a hill by the side of a S. tributary of the Baetis, now called the Corbones. It is first mentioned as one of the headquarters of the rebellion in Baeturia, B.C. 197 (Liv. 33.21; validas urbes, Carmonem et Bardonem), and again in the Julian Civil War, when Caesar calls it by far the strongest city in the whole province of Further Spain (B.C. 2.19; comp. Hirt. B. Alex. 57, 64, where it is called Carmona). It is probably the place mentioned by Appian (App. Hisp. 25, 58, where the name has been corrupted into Καρεώνη or Καρβώνη, and Καρμένη); and also the COIN OF CARMO.
Carmelis of Livy. (Freinsheim, Epit. Lib. 47.24.) Several of its coins are extant; all, with one exception, being of the type here represented, namely, on the obverse the heads of various deities; on the reverse, the name of the city between two ears of corn placed horizontally. (Florez, Esp. Sagr. vol. ix. pp. 113--115; Med. de Esp. vol. 1. p. 288. vol. 3. p. 31; Caro, Ant. Hispal. 3.41; Mionnet. vol. 1. p. 9, Suppl. vol. 1. p. 17; Sestini, p. 40; Eckhel, vol. 1. p. 17).
[P.S]Town in Hispania Ulterior 33 km E of Seville. It belonged to the territory of the Turduli and appears to have been a municipium, appearing in Agrippa's account as oppidum civium romanorum or latinorum. Variants of the name Carmo appear (Caes. BCiv. 2.19.4; Strab. 3.141; Ptol. 2.4.10; App. Hisp. 58; Bello Alexandr. 57.2; 64.1; Ant. It. 414.2; Ravenna Cosmographer 315.5).
Carmo began to mint coins before 133 B.C., the obverse of the ass bearing the head of Mercury and of Mars or Roma, and the reverse, the name of the mint between two ears of corn; on later issues, smaller in size, the reverse type is the same but the obverse bears the head of Herakles. Surprisingly, while Caesar called it one of the most important towns in Baetica, it is not mentioned by Mela and Pliny. Its early remains are buried in the area extending from the present Ayuntamiento to the Plaza de Abastos, where there is a large dolmen. Some graves from the Carthaginian period (ca. 5th c. with rich grave goods, have been discovered. The name of a certain Urbanibal, of Carthaginian descent, who lived during the Roman period, is preserved on a funeral urn discovered in the Roman cemetery and today in the Carmona museum.
Remains of the Roman period include part of the wall (the gates of Seville and Cordoba were modified in the Arab and mediaeval periods), a large temple, the Roman cemetery containing underground tombs such as those of Servilia, Prepusa, Postumius, and the Elephant, and the amphitheater, which is partly cut out of the rock and dates from the last quarter of the 1st c. B.C. Portraits, sculptures, and inscriptions have also been found in the town and in the necropolis.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. Bonsor, Memorias de la Sociedad Arqueológica de Carmona (n.d.); J. D. de la Rada, Necropolis de Carmona (1885); E. Bonsor, An Archaeological Sketch-Book of the Roman Necropolis at Carmona (1931); J. Hernández Diaz et al., Catálogo arqueológico y artístico de la provincia de Sevilla (1943); C. Fernández Chicarro, Excavaciones del anfiteatro de Carmona (in preparation).
C. FERNANDEZ-CHICARRO