A 15th-century painting depicting the skinning of corrupt judge Sisamnes in the year 500 BC.

Sisamnes was a corrupt royal judge from the time of Cambyses II in Persia. It was discovered that he took a bribe in court and passed an unfair sentence.

As a consequence, the king ordered him to be arrested as a prevaricator and ordered that he’ll be skinned alive.

His skin was used to upholster the seat in which he had presided over the trials, and in which his son, Otanes, had to sit, whom Sisamnes chose to replace him.

Otanes was forced to remember the origin of leather so that he would take it into account in his hearings, deliberations, and sentences.

Source: Strange Planet