He marched against the gorgeous metropolis, and besieged it for two years in vain. He at last thought of a stratagem which displayed his genius and boldness of action. He determined to turn the channel of the Euphrates, which went through the whole length of the city, from the walls where it entered, and get into the capital through the dry channel, under the massive pile which no battering rams could crumble. He succeeded in making a new bed for the stream, and his troops went into Babylon over a path washed for ages by the waters of the Euphrates. Media, a word some suppose to be derived from Madai, the son of Japheth, was the name of a region adjacent to ancient Assyria, inhabited by warlike hordes for centuries. The little that is said of these people in the Bible, is in connection with the Persians. Both seemed to have become one nation; first the Medes gaining the ascendancy, and then the Persians. But the darkness which rests upon the origin of the Asiatic lands bewilders the most careful historian. The conspicuous appearance of the Medes and Persians begins with Cyrus the Great, the conqueror of Babylon, a remarkable monarch in power, glory, and character. The picture of the magi who journeyed from the east to find the infant Messiah, presents a peculiar view of the Persians and Arabians. Among these gentile nations were men of great attainments in whatever of philosophy and astrology there was in the world. The Ethiopian race is represented, and it may have been that dark faces were over the wonderful child. Color was evidently then no honor or disgrace; the man was the object of regard or scorn. More will be said of these wonderful travellers in the more appropriate place in the annals of Palestine. Cyrus the first, and noble Persian monarch, was kindly disposed toward the captive Jews, and Daniel had great influence over him. In the very year of his conquest he issued a decree, in which, after acknowledging the supremacy of the Lord, and that to him he owed all kingdoms, he gave full permission to the Jews in any part of his dominions, to return to their own land and to rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem. No sooner were the favorable dispositions of the king thus made known, than the members of the latter captivity--those of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi--repaired in large numbers to Babylon from their different places of residence; some to make preparations for their journey; and others, who had no intention to return themselves, to assist those who had. Most of the existing race had been born in Babylonia, and in the course of years families had established themselves in the country, and formed connections, and gathered around them comforts which were not easily abandoned. Only a minority availed themselves of the decree in their favor; the most of the people choosing to remain in the land of their exile; and it has always been the opinion of the Jews that the more illustrious portion of their nation remained