Telipinus

Hittite king
Written By:
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
Alternative Title: Telepinus
Telipinus
Hittite king
Also known as
  • Telepinus
flourished

c. 1600 BCE - c. 1501 BCE

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Telipinus, also spelled Telepinus (flourished 16th century bc), last king of the Hittite Old Kingdom in Anatolia (reigned c. 1525–c. 1500 bc).

Telipinus seized the throne during a dynastic power struggle, and during his reign he attempted to end lawlessness and to regulate the royal succession. His stipulations, now called the Edict of Telipinus, form one of the best sources available for a study of the Hittite Old Kingdom. In his edict, Telipinus designated the pankus (a general assembly) as high court in cases of constitutional crimes. In the case of murder, even the king was subject to its jurisdiction. The initiative seems to have been successful, for the stipulations of the edict were generally observed until the end of the New Kingdom (c. 1400–c. 1190 bc). Little else is known of Telipinus’ reign, and historical records fail from his time until the beginning of the 14th century bc.

Learn More in these related articles:

Hittite
member of an ancient Indo-European people who appeared in Anatolia at the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce; by 1340 bce they had become one of the dominant powers of the Middle East.
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Anatolia: The Middle Kingdom
Telipinus is ordinarily regarded as the last king of the Old Kingdom. His death marks the beginning of a more obscure period that lasted until the creation of the Hittite empire. The Syrian provinces, which Telipinus had been compelled to abandon, fell briefly into the hands of Hanigalbat, one of the political units into which the Hurrians had become organized. Hanigalbat, in turn, surrendered...
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...Edict of Telipinus, one of its last kings. In contrasting the prosperity of the nation under his earliest predecessors with the decadence into which it had fallen at the time of his own accession, Telipinus provides a useful though not always reliable summary of early Hittite history:

Formerly Labarnas was Great King; and then his sons, his brothers, his connections by marriage, his...

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Telipinus
Hittite king
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