Hittite Laws
CTH 291-292
Punishment should fit restitution rather than retaliation, so nearly every offense in the kingdom is priced in compensation rather than answered with bodily injury.
- compensation over retaliation
- case-law casuistic form
- explicit revision of older penalties
- graduated fines by social status
A two-tablet collection of roughly 200 case laws covering theft, assault, property damage, marriage, and sexual offenses, preserved in Old Kingdom originals and later New Kingdom copies that record explicit revisions to older, harsher penalties. Unlike the mirroring talionic logic of contemporary Mesopotamian law collections, most Hittite cases resolve through graduated fines and compensation rather than physical punishment. The revisions are stated openly in the text itself, giving a rare direct view of a Bronze Age legal system revising its own severity over time.
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