bloodshed. All the while the kingdom suffered–its subject-states
in rebellion, its land ravaged by drought. The gods had a hand in
this, claims Telipinu, disgusted by the continuing feuds in the royal
family which now seemed in self-destruct mode. By the end of
Huzziya’s reign, Hatti was on the verge of disintegration. Time now
for Telipinu, Huzziya’s brother-in-law, to make his grand entrance.
After ending Huzziya’s reign by usurping the throne for himself,
he issued a statement of reassurance. There would be no more
bloodshed, no more reprisals. Huzziya and hisfive brothers had
their lives spared, but just to be on the safe side, the usurper
banished them to a place where he felt sure they’d be unable to
attempt a counter-coup or any other form of retaliation.
Did his reign, beginning around 1525, mark the dawn of a new
era? On the military front, he established his credentials as a war
leader by winning back many of the subject-territories lost to Hatti
during his predecessors’ reigns. But most important was his
attempt to bring stability to the topmost levels of Hittite society–
above all the kingship. And this brings us to the chief purpose of
his Proclamation: to lay downfixed rules for the royal succession.
The long historical preamble leading up to this, while useful to us
for the historical information it provides, is designed primarily
to highlight one axiomatic principle: a kingdom united is strong
and will achieve great things against its enemies; a kingdom
divided will become prey to its enemies and risk annihilation. And
a kingdom cannot be united unless there is a smooth, formal
process of succession from one king to the next. Here is the
Proclamation’skeyclause:
Let a prince, a son of thefirst rank, become king. If there is
no prince of thefirst rank, let him who is a son of the second
rank become king. But if there is no prince, no heir, let them
take anantiyant-husband for her who is a daughter of the
first rank, and let him become king.In thefirst instance, a king should be succeeded by a son from his
chief wife. If he has no sons by his chief wife, a son of one of his
concubines becomes eligible. But if he has no sons by either a wife
42 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA