initial upload

docs/law/DIALOGUE-LAW-0004.md

@@ -0,0 +1,370 @@
+# DIALOGUE-LAW-0004
+## The Prize Ship — Canonical Draft
+### Status: Canonical Dialogue Draft
+### Layer: OTIVM (Roman Law)
+### Purpose: Scenario teaching wartime seizure, prize rights, neutral status claims, state versus private ownership, mixed identities, maritime asset value, and the legal power to classify persons and property.
+### Repository Path: docs/scenarios/DIALOGUE-LAW-0004.md
+
+---
+
+## 0. Design Intent
+
+A large seaworthy vessel of a current enemy has been captured at sea and towed into Ostia.
+
+Its hull is sound, its rigging valuable, and its hold crowded with transported persons who claim to be taken from neutral shores. Some speak of kidnapping, some of debt sale, some of forced migration, and some speak too little.
+
+No magistrate has ruled. No auction has opened. No embassy has yet arrived.
+
+Yet captors demand prize shares, merchants inspect the hull, officials seek manifests, translators are hired, and the harbor debates whether the human cargo are spoils, witnesses, debtors, or free persons wrongfully taken.
+
+Known facts are uncertain:
+
+- whether the ship is lawful prize of war
+- whether the captives are genuine neutrals
+- whether enemy sailors hide among them
+- whether state confiscation overrides private sale
+- whether disease spreads in the hold
+- whether foreign envoys are already on the road
+
+The participant must learn that authority often begins by deciding classifications.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Scene Constraints
+
+Location: main harbor quay in Ostia beside impound pier, late morning.
+
+Primary signals:
+
+- captured ship under guard
+- crowd examining hull lines
+- captives brought to sunlight in groups
+- translators shouting contradictory claims
+- captors demanding payment
+- merchants already pricing timber and rope value
+
+Selection method: participant chooses whose interpretation to follow.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Opening Scene Draft
+
+The harbor loved victory most when it could be purchased.
+
+The captured ship rode high beside the impound pier, scarred at the rail but handsome in the hull. Men praised Rome while measuring beam width with their eyes.
+
+Marcus Atilius Varro stood near the gangplank where he could watch guards, crowd movement, and anyone trying to become invisible.
+
+Lucius Fabius Felix arrived smiling like a man who smelled wet profit.
+
+“No fire. No plague. No tax raid,” Felix said. “Only conquest delivered retail.”
+
+Varro nodded toward the vessel.
+
+“Good lines.”
+
+“Better if badly administered.”
+
+Gaius Licinius Crispus approached with official hunger.
+
+“Has seizure been entered properly?”
+
+Felix answered first.
+
+“The ropes suggest yes.”
+
+Crispus ignored him.
+
+“No docket posted,” Varro said. “Only soldiers and shouting.”
+
+“Then theft remains fashionable.”
+
+Quintus Cornelius Lentulus Minor arrived in a cloak chosen for public patriotism.
+
+“That hull could serve grain routes,” Lentulus said.
+
+Felix nodded.
+
+“And suddenly you support the war.”
+
+Titus Varenus Secundus came from beneath the stern carrying tar on one hand.
+
+“Keel sound,” he said. “Needs sailcloth, caulking, two weeks’ work.”
+
+Varro asked, “Worth buying?”
+
+Secundus snorted.
+
+“Worth stealing legally.”
+
+A quiet voice came from beside a crate of seized spears.
+
+“Depends who owns the right to sell.”
+
+Publius Terentius Chresimus stood with three tablets and a borrowed manifest fragment.
+
+Felix sighed.
+
+“Even triumph acquires paperwork.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Especially triumph.”
+
+A group of captives were led onto the quay blinking in sunlight.
+
+Some were pale islanders, some dark-haired coastal folk, some clearly old enough to hate everyone equally.
+
+A translator shouted:
+
+“They are all free fishers taken unlawfully!”
+
+Another translator shouted:
+
+“Half sold themselves in famine!”
+
+A third shouted:
+
+“One bit me!”
+
+The crowd found this useful.
+
+Varro said, “Mixed cargo.”
+
+Crispus nodded.
+
+“Mixed claims.”
+
+A sailor from the capture crew held out his hand.
+
+“Prize share now.”
+
+Felix admired him.
+
+“A pure constitutionalist.”
+
+Lentulus frowned.
+
+“The state must inspect first.”
+
+“The sailor’s children eat first,” Felix replied.
+
+Secundus pointed toward the lower hatch.
+
+“Still more below.”
+
+Varro said, “Any sick?”
+
+“Two fevered. One dead at dawn.”
+
+The crowd stepped back exactly one pace.
+
+Chresimus noted names.
+
+“Quarantine now affects valuation.”
+
+Felix said, “Everything affects valuation.”
+
+A woman among the captives cried that she was from a neutral island under Roman friendship.
+
+A bearded man beside her swore he had never seen her before.
+
+She struck him immediately.
+
+The crowd approved the strike more than the testimony.
+
+Crispus folded his hands.
+
+“Identity hearings required.”
+
+Felix smiled.
+
+“Sell the ship while hearings multiply.”
+
+Lentulus looked toward the vessel.
+
+“If the Senate claims it, private purchase ends.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Unless repair contracts begin.”
+
+Felix turned.
+
+“There. My scholar wakes.”
+
+A marine dragged out two chained men claiming to be captives.
+
+Their wrists carried rope burns inconsistent with captivity.
+
+Varro noticed first.
+
+“There.”
+
+“What?” Lentulus asked.
+
+“Hands of sailors.”
+
+Secundus nodded.
+
+“Also feet.”
+
+The chained men began speaking a language no one nearby understood and too rapidly to help themselves.
+
+Crispus said, “Enemy crew concealed among cargo.”
+
+Felix grinned.
+
+“Then inventory improves.”
+
+A rope merchant shouted offers for the standing rigging before any sale had been declared.
+
+Another offered for anchors.
+
+A third offered for the cook.
+
+The guards grew tired visibly.
+
+Varro asked, “Who commands here?”
+
+No one answered quickly.
+
+That was answer enough.
+
+A clerk finally arrived carrying seals, ink, and the expression of a man already behind schedule.
+
+Crispus brightened.
+
+“At last.”
+
+Felix sighed.
+
+“Delay in sandals.”
+
+The clerk read a notice:
+
+All persons and goods remain under provisional state custody pending classification.
+
+The harbor groaned.
+
+Felix said, “There goes efficient corruption.”
+
+Chresimus replied:
+
+“No. It merely changes office.”
+
+A noble matron’s steward inspected the captives discreetly for domestic purchase possibilities.
+
+Lentulus saw this and looked embarrassed for society.
+
+Felix did not.
+
+Secundus said quietly:
+
+“Water and bread needed within hour.”
+
+Varro nodded.
+
+“Or riot.”
+
+A messenger ran in from the road shouting that envoys from a neutral city had been seen approaching.
+
+The quay changed at once.
+
+Crispus said, “Urgency.”
+
+Lentulus said, “Optics.”
+
+Felix said, “Discount window closing.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Bribes rising.”
+
+The clerk demanded lists of names.
+
+The captives answered in four languages and three levels of truth.
+
+Varro asked, “What matters now?”
+
+Secundus answered first.
+
+“Separate sick, sailors, children, fighters.”
+
+Lentulus said, “Protect Rome from scandal.”
+
+Crispus said, “Establish lawful categories.”
+
+Felix said, “Buy hull rights before patriotism overpays.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Find the manifest master copy.”
+
+They all looked at him.
+
+“If cargo was declared as timber or salt, many men hang by ink.”
+
+Varro stepped toward the chained sailors.
+
+“I’ll learn who they are.”
+
+Secundus moved toward the gangplank.
+
+“I’ll inspect stores, water, and seaworthiness.”
+
+Lentulus adjusted his cloak.
+
+“I will meet the envoys before they meet anger.”
+
+Crispus drew himself up.
+
+“I will secure jurisdiction and records.”
+
+Felix turned toward the rope merchants.
+
+“I will purchase despair before auction begins.”
+
+Chresimus tied his tablets.
+
+“I will learn who falsified the cargo list.”
+
+Felix looked back once.
+
+“Six men. One captured ship. None of us discussing victory.”
+
+Varro answered without turning.
+
+“We are discussing ownership.”
+
+---
+
+## 3. Choice Presentation
+
+> The ship is seized. The people aboard are not yet defined. Whose reading of the quay do you trust?
+
+| Choice | Background |
+|---|---|
+| Follow Varro to sort security risk, truth, and hidden crew. | Former Legionary |
+| Follow Felix to exploit delay, auction pressure, and hull value. | Freedman Trader |
+| Follow Lentulus to manage diplomacy, optics, and noble influence. | Noble Younger Son |
+| Follow Crispus to classify persons, claims, and lawful custody. | Failed Magistrate |
+| Follow Secundus to assess ship value, quarantine, and provisioning. | Camp Logistician |
+| Follow Chresimus to trace manifests, fraud, and title by ink. | Guild Scribe |
+
+---
+
+## 4. What This Scene Teaches
+
+- War often converts uncertainty into legal classifications.
+- Captured ships may be worth more than their cargo.
+- Human status can hinge on documentation and testimony.
+- State custody can delay profit but increase leverage.
+- Disease changes law, price, and urgency simultaneously.
+- Whoever controls categories controls outcomes.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Canonical Success Condition
+
+If the participant stops asking:
+
+“Should they be freed?”
+
+and starts asking:
+
+“Who has authority to decide what they are?”
+
+then this dialogue is functioning correctly.