A Corruption Story
There is a 16th-century painting in Greece of a corrupt judge being flayed alive in 500 BC.
The judge’s name was Sessmans.
There was a corrupt royal judge in Persia at the time of King Cambyses.
It was found that he took bribe in the court and gave unfair verdict. As a result, the king ordered that he be arrested for his corruption and ordered to be flayed alive.
Before pronouncing the verdict, the king asked Sesamnes whom he wished to nominate as his successor.
Sismanus chose his son, Otanes, in his temptation. The king agreed and appointed his son Otanis to replace the judge Sesmanus. He then pronounced the verdict and ordered that the skin of Judge Sessmans be removed and his skin be placed on the judge’s chair. Whereupon the new judge will sit in court and remind him of the possible consequences of corruption. Otanes, in his meditations, was always forced to remember that he was always sitting on the skin of his executed father.
This helped ensure fairness and equity in all his hearings, deliberations and sentences