Add latin-bridge.md — Latin vocabulary connecting research to code
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docs/architecture/latin-bridge.md
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# The Latin Bridge
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### TheRON — OTIVM / CIVICVS / TESSERA Stack
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### Purpose: Connect research vocabulary (Layer 2) to code tokens (Layer 3) via Latin
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### Status: Living document
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### Date: 2026-04-28
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---
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## 0. Why this document exists
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The research brief (`research-brief-roman-venture.md`) instructs ChatGPT to
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use Latin where academically defensible. The terminology document
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(`terminology.md`) defines the three-layer vocabulary and the code tokens.
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This document is the bridge between them.
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When ChatGPT returns a research result using a Latin term, this document
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tells the developer:
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- Whether that term has been admitted to the canonical vocabulary
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- What code token it maps to
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- What it precisely means — not a gloss, but the full semantic content
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- What it does not mean — the boundaries of the term
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- Why Latin was chosen over English for this concept
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When a developer encounters a Latin term in documentation or UI text, this
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document tells them which code token to use in the corresponding database
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column or API parameter.
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This document does not duplicate `terminology.md`. It deepens it.
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Where `terminology.md` lists terms, this document explains them.
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---
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## 1. The admission standard — restated precisely
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A Latin term is admitted to the canonical vocabulary when it satisfies
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all three of the following:
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**Test 1 — Period-authentic.**
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The term was in documented use by Romans of the relevant period
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(approximately 1st century BCE to 1st century CE) in the relevant
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context (commercial, civic, or social life of a working MERCATOR).
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Terms from legal texts, literary sources, or inscriptions are all
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admissible if the context is appropriate. Terms whose only attestation
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is in later, ecclesiastical, or medieval Latin are not admitted without
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explicit note.
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**Test 2 — Semantically denser than the English equivalent.**
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The Latin term carries information that the nearest English equivalent
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does not carry without additional explanation. The test is practical:
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if you can replace the Latin with an English word and lose nothing, use
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the English. If replacing it requires a phrase, a footnote, or a
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qualification, the Latin earns its place.
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**Test 3 — Scope-bounded.**
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The term cannot be applied to a different period or culture without the
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misapplication being immediately visible. This visibility is a feature —
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it prevents vocabulary from bleeding across periods and erasing the
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distinctions the simulation depends on.
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**The consequence of passing all three tests:**
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The Latin term becomes the canonical human-facing label for that concept
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in the Roman layer. It appears in UI text, in journal entries, in
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documentation prose, and in research briefs. It does not appear in code
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tokens, database column names, or API parameters — those use the
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period-neutral Layer 3 tokens defined in `terminology.md`.
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---
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## 2. Admitted terms — full semantic entries
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Each entry below provides the full semantic content of an admitted Latin
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term: what it means, what it does not mean, why it was chosen over
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English, and what code token it maps to.
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---
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### NEGOTIVM
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**Code token:** `venture`
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**Literal:** business, affair, occupation, work
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**Opposite:** OTIUM
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NEGOTIVM is not merely "business" in the modern sense. It is the active,
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engaged, outward-facing dimension of a Roman's life — everything that
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demands time, attention, and presence in the world. Commercial activity
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is the most obvious form, but NEGOTIVM includes legal proceedings,
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political obligations, military service, and any other demand that pulls
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a person away from OTIUM.
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For the MERCATOR, NEGOTIVM is the commercial venture — the ITER from
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warehouse to market, the negotiation of price, the management of cargo.
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But it carries an implicit moral weight that the English "business" does
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not: NEGOTIVM was understood as the necessary but lesser part of life.
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A life of pure NEGOTIVM, without OTIUM, was considered incomplete.
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**What it does not mean:** It does not mean a single transaction.
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A NEGOTIVM is a bounded undertaking — it has a beginning, an end, and
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a purpose. Individual transactions within it are EMPTIONES (purchases)
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or VENDITIONES (sales).
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**Why not "venture" in the UI:** "Venture" is correct as the code token
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because it is period-neutral. In the UI, NEGOTIVM is used because it
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carries the moral and social weight that "venture" does not. When the
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player reads "begin a new NEGOTIVM," they are being told — even if they
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do not yet understand why — that what they are doing has a cost beyond
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denarii.
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---
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### OTIUM
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**Code token:** `interval`
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**Literal:** leisure, rest, ease, peace
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**Opposite:** NEGOTIVM
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OTIUM is the most misunderstood term in the Roman vocabulary. It is not
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idleness. It is not vacation. It is not the absence of work.
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OTIUM is the deliberate, purposeful withdrawal from NEGOTIVM for the
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cultivation of the self and the fulfilment of social obligations that
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cannot be conducted in the marketplace. Cicero wrote his philosophical
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works during OTIUM. Generals retired to their estates for OTIUM.
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A MERCATOR took OTIUM to maintain his CLIENTELA, participate in his
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COLLEGIUM, and be seen conducting himself as a person of standing.
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OTIUM produces AVCTORITAS. A MERCATOR who never takes OTIUM is not
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efficient — he is socially deficient. He has no relationships, no
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standing, no network. The market will eventually reflect this.
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**What it does not mean:** It does not mean rest in the physiological
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sense, though physical restoration is a component. It does not mean
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private leisure in the modern sense — Roman OTIUM had a strong public
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and social dimension. A Roman taking OTIUM alone, without social
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engagement, was doing it wrong.
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**Why not "rest" or "downtime" in the UI:** These English terms strip
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OTIUM of its productive and social character. A player who sees "Take
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Rest" thinks they are pausing the game. A player who sees "Take OTIUM"
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is being told — even subliminally — that something is being produced.
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The word carries the information that the mechanic depends on.
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---
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### AVCTORITAS
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**Code token:** `resource` (type: `auctoritas`)
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**Literal:** authority, influence, weight, credibility, reputation
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AVCTORITAS is social capital with legal and commercial consequences.
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In Rome, a person with high AVCTORITAS could guarantee a contract by
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their word alone. They could open doors that denarii could not. They
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could secure the cooperation of people who would not deal with a
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stranger.
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AVCTORITAS was accumulated through correct conduct over time:
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fulfilling obligations, taking appropriate OTIUM, maintaining
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CLIENTELA, being seen in the right places with the right people.
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It could be lost through commercial failure, social disgrace, or the
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failure to meet obligations.
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**What it does not mean:** It is not "reputation points" in the
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gamified sense — a number that goes up when you do good things and
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down when you do bad things. AVCTORITAS is a social reality that
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other actors in the simulation respond to. It opens some paths and
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closes others. Its effects are not always visible to the MERCATOR
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at the moment they occur.
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**Why not "reputation" in the UI:** "Reputation" is a modern word
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that has been stripped of legal and civic weight. A person can have
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a reputation without it meaning anything beyond general esteem.
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AVCTORITAS meant something in Roman law. It had consequences.
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---
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### RATIONES
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**Code token:** `accounts` (UI tab name)
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**Literal:** reckonings, accounts, calculations, reasons
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RATIONES is the plural of RATIO — a reckoning, a calculation, an
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account. RATIONES ACCEPTI ET EXPENSI is the formal phrase for a
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full account of receipts and expenditures.
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In the simulation, RATIONES is the tab that shows the disaggregated
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line items of every NEGOTIVM — what was spent at each ITER, on what,
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at what rate, with what outcome. It is not a summary. It is the
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accounts.
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**What it does not mean:** It does not mean "reasons" in the
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philosophical sense, though RATIO carries that meaning in other
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contexts. Here the commercial meaning is primary: these are the
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numbers that prove what happened.
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**Why RATIONES and not CODEX ACCEPTI ET EXPENSI:** The CODEX is the
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physical book — the Ledger tab. RATIONES is the act of reckoning —
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the accounts themselves. The distinction is between the object and
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the content. The Ledger tab holds the narrative. The Accounts tab
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holds the numbers.
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---
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### ITER
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**Code token:** `leg`
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**Literal:** journey, march, road, way, passage
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ITER is a single movement from one location to another. In the
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context of a NEGOTIVM, it is one leg of the venture: one mode of
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transport, one origin, one destination. A NEGOTIVM from Ostia to
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Capua might contain three ITINERA: ITER by cart from farm to
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Ostia warehouse, ITER by porter from warehouse to vessel, ITER by
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road from Ostia to Capua.
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**What it does not mean:** ITER does not mean the whole journey.
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It is the indivisible unit of movement within a NEGOTIVM. It has
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its own mode, cost, duration, personnel, and failure profile.
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**Why not "leg" in the UI:** "Leg" is the correct code token
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because it is period-neutral and understood by developers.
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In UI text and documentation prose, ITER is used when referring
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to a specific segment of a NEGOTIVM. "The sea ITER from Brundisium
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to Carthago" is more precise than "the sea leg."
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---
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### MERCATOR
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**Code token:** `actor` (with `actor_type: mercator`)
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**Literal:** merchant, trader, dealer
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A MERCATOR was a specific social and legal category in Rome — a free
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person conducting commercial ventures for personal profit. Not a
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NEGOTIATOR (a higher-status wholesale merchant dealing in large
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quantities, often financing others), not an INSTITOR (a slave or
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freedman managing a shop on behalf of an owner), but a working
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merchant of the middling sort.
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The MERCATOR is the actor in OTIVM because this category is at the
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productive tension point of Roman social life: free enough to pursue
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profit, dependent enough on AVCTORITAS and CLIENTELA to have social
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obligations, mobile enough to know the routes, constrained enough by
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capital and risk to make every NEGOTIVM a genuine decision.
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**What it does not mean:** MERCATOR does not mean merchant in the
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generic sense. It implies freedom, Roman legal standing, personal
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risk, and personal gain. A slave conducting trade on behalf of a
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master is not a MERCATOR.
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---
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### SVCCINUM
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**Code token:** `resource` (type: `succinum`)
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**Literal:** amber, elektron (Greek)
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SVCCINUM is the Roman term for Baltic amber — fossil resin that
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had been traded southward from the Baltic coast through central
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Europe to the Mediterranean for thousands of years before Rome.
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It arrived in Roman markets through a chain of intermediary
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exchanges that the MERCATOR at the end of the chain could not
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fully trace.
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SVCCINUM is the first term in OTIVM that explicitly connects the
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Roman commercial world to the pre-Roman world. The amber in the
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MERCATOR's hold originated in forests that were already ancient
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when Rome was founded — forests that CIVICVS models in
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approximately 8000 BCE.
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**What it does not mean:** SVCCINUM is not generic "amber." The
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word carries its provenance chain. When the simulation records
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SVCCINUM as a cargo item, it is recording the end point of a
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supply chain that began in Maglemoisian territory. The code must
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eventually trace that chain back through its intermediaries.
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**Why this term matters for the project:** SVCCINUM is the lexical
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bridge between OTIVM and CIVICVS. The MERCATOR handles it at the
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Roman end. The CIVICVS Constructors live at the origin. When the
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two simulations share a TESSERA substrate, the amber in the hold
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will be traceable to a specific H3 cell where a Constructor
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gathered or traded it, through a chain of exchanges across
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millennia. SVCCINUM is the first term where that future is
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already visible in the word.
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---
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### NAVIS ONERARIA
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**Code token:** `vessel` (with `vessel_type: oneraria`)
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**Literal:** cargo-bearing ship
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The broad class of Roman merchant vessels designed primarily for
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cargo capacity rather than speed. Distinguished from NAVIS LONGA
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(warship) and NAVIS ACTUARIA (fast oared transport). Subtypes:
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CORBITA (large, round-hulled sailing vessel, slow, very large
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capacity), ACTUARIA (smaller, mixed oar and sail, faster).
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**What it does not mean:** Not a "galley." A galley is primarily
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oared and primarily military. The MERCATOR does not operate
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galleys. The word "galley" in OTIVM-I and OTIVM-II was scaffolding
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and is rejected in `terminology.md`. The correct term is NAVIS
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ONERARIA or its subtype.
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---
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### PORTORIUM
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**Code token:** `cost` (type: `portorium`)
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**Literal:** harbour toll, customs duty, transit tax
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The tax levied on goods crossing provincial, district, or customs
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boundaries. Collected by PVBLICANI — private contractors who had
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purchased the right to collect it from the Roman state. The rate
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varied by region, good, and period. In the first century BCE,
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rates of 2.5% to 5% of cargo value were common, but could be
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higher at strategic chokepoints.
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PORTORIUM is not a single tax. It was levied at specific points —
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at harbour entrances, at road tolls, at provincial boundaries.
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A NEGOTIVM from Ostia to Alexandria might encounter PORTORIUM
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multiple times.
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**What it does not mean:** It does not mean a generic "tax."
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PORTORIUM is specifically a transit and customs duty on goods
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in movement. Income taxes, land taxes, and poll taxes are
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different instruments with different names.
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---
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### MARE CLAVSVM
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**Code token:** `epoch` constraint (maritime legs disabled or
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heavily penalised during `mare_clausum` season)
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**Literal:** closed sea
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The period approximately November to March during which
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Mediterranean maritime commerce was conventionally suspended.
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Not a legal prohibition in most periods, but a practical reality:
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the combination of winter storms, reduced daylight, and the
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unavailability of celestial navigation references made open-sea
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sailing genuinely dangerous.
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Roman sources describe the MARE CLAVSVM as running roughly from
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the setting of the Pleiades (early November) to their rising
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(mid-May), with a partial reopening in early spring for urgent
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traffic. The exact dates varied by region and period.
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**Why this term matters for the simulation:** MARE CLAVSVM is the
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first hard seasonal constraint in OTIVM. It does not prevent
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maritime legs — desperate or foolhardy MERCATORES sailed in winter.
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But it increases the probability of NAUFRAGIVM substantially and
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raises insurance and crew costs. The MERCATOR who plans around
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MARE CLAVSVM is thinking historically.
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---
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## 3. Terms under consideration — not yet admitted
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These terms have been identified in research but have not yet
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been formally tested against the three-part standard. They are
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listed here to prevent duplication of effort. Each will be
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elevated to Section 2 when it passes all three tests.
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| Latin term | Candidate meaning | Pending question |
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| LOCATIO CONDUCTIO | contract for services | Is this term accessible to a non-specialist participant, or does it require too much explanation to earn its place? |
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| NAVARCHUS | ship captain | Does this term carry enough additional meaning over "captain" to justify it? The NAVARCHUS had specific legal responsibilities — research required. |
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| BAIВLVS | porter | Straightforward. Likely admitted once the ITER parameter schema is built. |
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| MVLIO | muleteer | Same as BAIВLVS. Admitted when needed. |
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| COLLEGIUM | guild, association | Needs scoping — COLLEGIVM covered a vast range of associations. The specific type relevant to a MERCATOR needs to be identified. |
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| CLIENTELA | client network | Almost certainly admitted — the obligation structure of CLIENTELA is precisely what cannot be expressed in English without a paragraph. |
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| NAUFRAGIVM | shipwreck | Certain to be admitted — it is the canonical failure event for maritime ITINERA. |
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| FVRTVM | theft | Likely admitted — the legal category of FVRTVM in Roman law is more specific than "theft." |
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---
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## 4. How to use this document
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**When ChatGPT returns a Latin term:**
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1. Check Section 2 — is it admitted? If yes, use it as the human-facing
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label in UI text and documentation.
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2. Check Section 3 — is it under consideration? Note any new information
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from the research result and flag for formal testing.
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3. If it appears in neither section, add it to Section 3 with the source
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and context, and flag for testing at the next documentation session.
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**When writing code:**
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1. Never use a Latin term as a code token. Use the Layer 3 token from
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`terminology.md`.
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2. Comment the Latin term on first use:
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`// leg = ITER in Roman layer`
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**When writing UI text:**
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1. Use the admitted Latin term as the primary label where the concept
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is central.
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2. Provide the English gloss in parentheses on first introduction to
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the participant.
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3. After the first introduction, use the Latin term alone.
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**When adding a new term:**
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1. Identify the concept in research.
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2. Apply all three tests documented in Section 1.
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3. Write a full semantic entry following the format in Section 2.
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4. Commit to this document before using the term in any code,
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schema, or UI text.
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---
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*The Latin Bridge — living document, 2026-04-28*
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*A term admitted is a commitment. Precision is the product.*
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*TheRON — single contributor. AI assistants implement, document, flag — do not direct.*
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Reference in New Issue
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