GORDIUM, an ancient town of Bithynia, was situated not far from the river Sangarius, but the site has not been exactly ascertained, though M. Lejeau believes that it may be identified with ruins which he observed in the vicinity of the village Emret. It was undoubtedly a place of high antiquity, and though Strabo describes it as a village, it afterwards increased in size, and, under the name of Juliopolis, which it received in the reign of Augustus, it continued to flourish to the time of Justinian at least. According to the legend, Gordium was founded by a certain Gordius, who had been called to the throne by the Phrygians in obedience to an oracle of Zeus commanding them to select the first person that rode into the agora in a car. The king afterwards dedicated his car to the god, and another oracle declared that whoever succeeded in untying the strangely entwined knot of the yoke should reign over all Asia. Alexander the Great, according to the well-known story, overcame the difficulty of the Gordian knot by a stroke of his sword.

See Kiepert, Beiträge zur inschriftlichen Topographie KleinAsiens, 1863; Lejean, in Bull, de la Soc. de Giogr., Paris, 1869.