16. Vicit tamen in senatu pars illa, quae vero pretium aut gratiam anteferebat. Decretum fit, uti decem legati regnum, quod Micipsa obtinuerat, inter Jugurtham et Adherbalem dividerent. Cujus legationis princeps fuit L. Opimius, homo clarus et tum in senatu potens, quia consul, G. Graccho et M. Fulvio Flacco interfectis, acerrime victoriam nobilitatis in plebem exercuerat.[116] Eum Jugurtha tametsi Romae in inimicis habuerat, tamen accuratissime recepit, dando et pollicitando multa perfecit, uti famae, fide,[117] postremo omnibus suis rebus commodum regis anteferret. Reliquos legates eadem via aggressus, plerosque capit; paucis carior fides quam pecunia fuit. In divisione, quae pars Numidiae Mauretaniam attingit, agro virisque opulentior, Jugurthae traditur: illam alteram specie quam usu potiorem, quae portuosior et aedificiis magis exornata erat, Adherbal possedit.[118] [116] Opimius had been consul in B.C. 121, and in that year he had, with the authority of the senate, crushed the democratical party of G. Gracchus by force of arms. In consequence of that victory, several very harsh measures had been adopted by the aristocracy to strengthen and increase the power of the senate and the nobility. Opimius, too, was a statesman of loose principles, as is clear from the narrative of Sallust. [117] _Fide_ for _fidei_. See Zumpt, S 85, note 3. [118] _Possedit_, 'he took possession of.' The present _possideo_ only means 'to possess;' but the past tenses, _possedi_, _possessum_, at the same time have the meaning of 'taking possession,' as if they were formed from a present _possido_, _possidere_. Compare the similarly-formed compounds of _sido_, _sidere_, in Zumpt, S 189.