GERMA´NII(Γερμάνιοι, Hdt. 1.125), one of the three agricultural tribes of the ancient Persians, according to Herodotus. There has been much dispute among the learned who these people were. The probability seems to be, that they were connected with Carmania, now Kirman. Agatharchides, indeed, calls the Carmania of Diodorus (Diod. 18.6) and Strabo (14.723) by the name of Germania ( Perip. M. E. p. 27). Others, with less probability, have connected the Germanii with a people N. of the Oxus, which was sometimes called Erman, and now bears the name Khawarezm, and have supposed that they are the real ancestors of the modern Germans; but this is fanciful. (Hammer, Wien Jahrb. 2. p. 319; Krusii Archiv. 1.2. p. 124; Adelung. Mith. 1. p. 278.)
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