CARMONA  , a

town of south-western Spain, in the province of Seville; 27 M . N.E. of Seville by rail . Pop . (1900) 17,215 . Carmona is built on a ridge overlooking the central plain of Andalusia, from the Sierra Morena, on the north, to the peak of San Cristobal, on the south . It has a thriving trade in wine, olive oil, grain and cattle; and the annual fair, which is held in April, affords good opportunity of observing the costumes and customs of southern Spain . The citadel of Carmona, now in ruins, was formerly the principal fortress of Peter the Cruel (1350-1369), and contained a spacious palace within its defences . The principal entrance to the town is an old Moorish gateway; and the gate on the road to Cordova is partly of Roman construction . Portions of the ancient college of San Teodomir are of Moorish architecture, and the tower of the church of San Pedro is an imitation of the Giralda at Seville . In 1881 a large Roman necropolis was discovered close to the town, beside the Seville road . It contains many rock-hewn sepulchral chambers, with niches for the cinerary urns, and occasionally with vestibules containing stone seats (triclinia) . In 1881 an amphitheatre, and another group of tombs, all belonging to the first four centuries A.D., were disinterred near the original necropolis, and a small museum, maintained by the Carmona archaeological society, is filled with the mosaics, inscriptions, portrait-heads and other antiquities found here .

Carmona, the Roman Carmo, was the strongest

city of Further Spain in the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.), and its strength was greatly increased by the Moors, who surrounded it with a wall and ornamented it with fountains and palaces . In 1247 Ferdinand III. of Castile took the city, and bestowed on it the motto Sicut Lucifer lucet in Aurora, sic in Wandalia Carmona (" As the Morning-star shines in the Dawn, so shines Carmona in Andalusia ") . For an account of the antiquities of Carmona, see Estudios arqueologicos e historicos, by M . Sales y Ferre (Madrid, 1887) .