ELYMAIS (Ελυμαίς):

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn

Generally denoting the Persian province of Elam (). It occurs in two places (I Macc. vi. 1; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 9, § 1) as the name of a rich city besieged by Antiochus Epiphanes. But the other historians who relate this event do not mention any town of this name. The existence of such a town has been denied, the name in I Macc. vi. I being explained (see Vaihinger in Herzog's "Real-Encyc." iii. 749) as a mistranslation of an original "be-'Elam ha-Medinah" (comp. Syriac and Arabic versions). On the Talmudical identified with Elymais, see Neubauer, "Géographie du Talmud," p. 381.

E. G. H. M. Sel.