THE SCENE: It can be hard to ensure that judges are above corruption, but one emperor had a nifty solution: make them execute their duties from a chair made out of human skin.
THE TEXT: An emperor established a law that every judge convicted of a partial administration of justice should undergo the severest penalties. It happened that a certain judge, bribed by a large sum, gave a notoriously corrupt decision. This circumstance reaching the ears of the emperor, he commanded him to be flayed. The sentence was immediately executed, and the skin of the culprit nailed upon the seat of judgment, as an awful warning to others to avoid a similar offence. The emperor afterwards bestowed the same dignity upon the son of the deceased judge, and on presenting the appointment, said, “Thou wilt sit, to administer justice, upon the skin of thy delinquent sire: should any one incite thee to do evil, remember his fate; look down upon thy father’s skin, lest his fate befal thee.”
– Gesta Romanorum, 13th Century AD
[Image Credit: The Flaying of the Corrupt Judge Sisamnes by Gerard David]
