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Nonetheless, it is possible to discern certain clusters of laws that sug-
gest organization by subject, aided, as Hoffner rightly points out, by
the principle of attraction.^16 Koro“ec identified the following cate-
gories: person, body, family, feudal services, theft.^17 He notes that
the order of paragraphs follows a declining path from more impor-
tant object to less important. The organization of Tablet 2 is harder
to ascertain. The categories property of others, wages, sacral law,
prices, and sexual offenses can be constructed, but intrusive provi-
sions not belonging to any of these categories are more disruptive
than in Tablet 1. Perhaps the scribes did not always know where
to insert a new provision: wage and price tariffs are separated; sacral
law could well have been placed next to sexual offenses by reason
of its sanctions. Admittedly, in the absence of any juridical classification
of individual paragraphs by the Hittites themselves (e.g., by head-
ings, as in some editions of the Laws of Hammurabi), modern inter-
pretation of the facts of a case may differ, leading to discrepancies
in the presumed ancient classification. Nonetheless, no rationale is
discernable for the location of certain laws. Thus 43–44 seem to
have no connection with the surrounding context, and the same
applies to 171 and 172.1.1.9 The changes to the Laws in the various manuscripts show
that the corpus is composite. Koro“ec identified four stages. The old-
est has the death penalty and extremely high payments in cattle as
sanctions. The second stage punishes sexual delicts and expands the
definition of theft. The third stage prescribes heavy pecuniary penal-
ties. The fourth is associated with a reform, identified by the state-
ment “formerly...; now...”^18 A fifth stage, not mentioned by
Koro“ec, would be the parallel text KBo VI 4, which also contains
changes to the protasis and apodosis.
The measures of the fourth stage may be ascribable to King
Telipinu (ca. 1500), whose constitution not only regulated succes-
sion to the throne but also dealt with homicide and witchcraft. In-
sofar as they affect HL, they are referred to as the Reform of
Telipinu.(^16) Ibid., 15.
(^17) Koro“ec, “Sistematika...”
(^18) Ibid.
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