sep 24, 117 BC - 117 BC- Jugurtha defeats Adherbal in open battle, Adherbal flees to Rome asking for help

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Rome’s approval being required for any change in the government of Numidia.

Unlike the division in 148 it did not work out well. Jugurtha was far more dynamic and more popular than Adherbal and Hiempsal, who were also much younger. A civil war broke out: Jugurtha defeated Hiempsal, who was killed, and expelled Adherbal, who fled to Rome and asked support from the Senate.

Jugurtha's friends in the Senate, however, argued that the Numidian who had helped Scipio Aemilianus so well should have the benefit of the doubt. They proposed that a commission of senators, led by former consul Lucius Opimius, should visit Numidia and divide the kingdom between the two men. The settlement was much to the advantage of Jugurtha. He received the western half, inhabited by the Masaeisylian Numidians, whereas Adherbal had to be content with the eastern part of the Massylian Numidians, which was less fertile. Writing seventy years later, the Roman historian Sallust believed that Jugurtha had bribed several senators, and this may or may not be true.

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