1Yet that party prevailed in the senate which put money or influence before the truth. 2A decree is passed that ten commissioners should divide the kingdom which Micipsa had held between Jugurtha and Adherbal. 2The head of this commission was Lucius Opimius, a distinguished man and at that time powerful in the senate, because as consul, after Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus had been killed, he had pressed the nobility's victory over the commons most harshly. 3Although Jugurtha had counted him among his enemies at Rome, he nevertheless received him with the greatest attention and, by giving and promising much, brought it about that he put the king's advantage before his reputation, his honour, in short before all his own interests.
4Approaching the other commissioners in the same way, he wins over most of them; to a few their honour was dearer than money. 5In the division, the part of Numidia that borders on Mauretania, richer in land and men, is handed over to Jugurtha; 5the other, better in appearance than in usefulness, which had more harbours and was more adorned with buildings, Adherbal took possession of.