descent; in 1814 they were subdued by the British, and
have since rendered valuable service to Britain in the Mutiny, in the
Afghan and in the Sikh Wars; there are now ten regiments of Goorkhas.

GORDIAN KNOT, a knot by which the yoke was fastened to the beam of
the chariot of Gordius (q. v.), and which no one could untie except the
man who was destined to be the conqueror of Asia; Alexander the Great
being ambitious to achieve this feat, tried hard to undo it, but failing,
cut it with his sword and marched on to conquest.

GORDIANUS, the name of three Roman Emperors, father, son, and
grandson. MARCUS ANTONIUS GORDIANUS, surnamed Africanus, rose to be
an aedile, consul twice, and subsequently became proconsul of Africa; on
the deposition of the Emperor Maximinus in 238, he, then in his eightieth
year, was proclaimed emperor, his son (_b_. A.D. 192) being associated
with him in the imperial office; grief at the death of his son, killed in
battle, caused him to commit suicide a month after he had assumed the
purple; he was a man of refined and generous nature. MARCUS ANTONIUS
GORDIANUS, grandson of preceding, was early raised to the dignity of
Caesar, and in 238 rose to the rank of Augustus; his most important
achievement was his driving back of the Persians beyond the Euphrates and
his relief of Antioch; he was assassinated in 244 by his own soldiers
while preparing to cross the Euphrates.

GORDIUS, a boor, the father of Midas (q. v.), who was proclaimed
king of Phrygia because he happened, in response to the decree of an
oracle, to be the first to ride into Gordium during a particular assembly
of the people; he rode into the city on a waggon, to which the yoke was
attached by the Gordian knot, and which he dedicated to Zeus.

GORDON, GENERAL CHARLES GEORGE, born at Woolwich, son of an
artillery officer; entered the Royal Engineers; served in the Crimea as
an officer in that department, and was, after the war, employed in
defining the boundaries of Asiatic Turkey and Russia; being employed in
1860 on a mission to square up matters with the Chinese, on the
settlement of the quarrel lent himself to the Emperor in the interest of
good order, and it was through him that the Taiping Rebellion in 1863-64
was extinguished, whereby he earned the title of "Chinese" Gordon; he
returned to England in 1865, and was for the next six years engaged in
completing the defences of the Thames at Gravesend; he was Vice-Consul of