Thrace, Kardia. AE. 2.04 g. - 12.53 mm. Circa 357-309 BC.
Obv.: Lion leaping to left.
Rev.: KAP-ΔΙΑ. Barley grain; all within square frame.
Ref.: Tzvetkova 122-8; HGC 3.2, 1482 (R2).
Very Fine.
Kardia anciently the chief town of the Thracian Chersonese, was situated at the head of the Gulf of Melas. It was originally a colony of the Milesians and Clazomenians; but subsequently, in the time of Miltiades; the place also received Athenian colonists, as proved by Miltiades tyranny. The town was destroyed by Lysimachus about 309 BC, and although it was afterwards rebuilt, it never again rose to any degree of prosperity, as Lysimachia, which was built in its vicinity and peopled with the inhabitants of Cardia, became the chief town in that neighbourhood. Cardia was the birthplace of Alexander's secretary Eumenes and of the historian Hieronymus. Plutarch in the "Life of Eumenes" writes that the young men and boys of Cardia were exercising in the Pankration and wrestling.