council-of-rome

The Council of Rome

Core principle: No single magistrate sees the whole Republic. The Senate endures because power is divided, perspectives are forced into collision, and no man's judgment goes unchallenged.

The Council of Rome is a suite of five evaluation frameworks, each embodied by a Roman magistrate with a distinct mandate, methodology, and temperament. Individually, each magistrate delivers a focused, thematically rigorous review. Convened together, they produce a Senate-grade assessment that no single perspective could achieve.

The Five Magistrates

Magistrate	Command	Historical Figure	Domain
The Censor	/censor	Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder	Structural integrity, code quality, austerity
The Tribune	/tribune	Gaius Sempronius Gracchus	User advocacy, accessibility, the people's voice
The Praetor	/praetor	Lucius Cornelius Sulla	Security, compliance, contracts, legal exposure
The Augur	/augur	Marcus Tullius Cicero	Strategic risk, market omens, timing, viability
The Legatus	/legatus	Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus	Operations, logistics, deployment, endurance

Invocation

/council                               # Convene all five magistrates
/council ~/projects/my-venture         # Full council on a specific project
/council . --magistrates=censor,augur  # Convene specific magistrates only
/senate                                # Alias for /council

# Individual magistrates (see their respective skill files):
/censor                                # The Censor's Decree
/tribune                               # The Tribune's Appeal
/praetor                               # The Praetor's Inquisition
/augur                                 # The Augur's Reading
/legatus                               # The Legatus's Campaign

How the Council Convenes

When /council is invoked, the following sequence executes:

digraph council_flow {
    rankdir=TB;

    "Invoke /council" [shape=box];
    "Survey the project" [shape=box];
    "Determine stage" [shape=diamond];
    "Select magistrates" [shape=box];
    "Dispatch all magistrates in parallel" [shape=box];
    "Collect individual reports" [shape=box];
    "The Senate Hearing" [shape=diamond];
    "Identify contradictions" [shape=box];
    "Resolve or surface tensions" [shape=box];
    "Inscribe SENATE-REPORT-YYYY-MM-DD.md" [shape=box];

    "Invoke /council" -> "Survey the project";
    "Survey the project" -> "Determine stage";
    "Determine stage" -> "Select magistrates";
    "Select magistrates" -> "Dispatch all magistrates in parallel";
    "Dispatch all magistrates in parallel" -> "Collect individual reports";
    "Collect individual reports" -> "The Senate Hearing";
    "The Senate Hearing" -> "Identify contradictions" [label="magistrates disagree"];
    "The Senate Hearing" -> "Resolve or surface tensions" [label="consensus or conflict"];
    "Identify contradictions" -> "Resolve or surface tensions";
    "Resolve or surface tensions" -> "Inscribe SENATE-REPORT-YYYY-MM-DD.md";
}

Step 1: Dispatch

Each magistrate evaluates the project independently using their own skill file, persona, and methodology. They do not see each other's findings during evaluation.

Step 2: The Senate Hearing

After all magistrates report, the Council phase begins. This is where the real value emerges — not in individual findings, but in the collisions between magistrates.

Look for these tensions:

Tension	Example
Speed vs. Safety	The Legatus demands faster deployment. The Praetor demands more audit.
User desire vs. Structural integrity	The Tribune wants a feature. The Censor says the architecture cannot support it.
Market timing vs. Readiness	The Augur says the window is closing. The Legatus says the supply lines aren't ready.
Growth vs. Compliance	The Augur sees opportunity. The Praetor sees regulatory exposure.
Simplicity vs. Robustness	The Tribune wants fewer steps. The Censor wants more validation.

These tensions are not bugs — they are the point. Surface them explicitly in the Senate Report.

Step 3: The Verdict

The Council issues a collective verdict after weighing all magistrates' findings:

Verdict	Meaning
IMPERIUM GRANTED	The project may proceed with full authority. Minor edicts only.
CONDITIO SENATUS	The Senate grants conditional approval. Named conditions must be met.
AD REFERENDUM	Referred back for fundamental work. The Senate will reconvene after corrections.
INTERCESSIO	A magistrate has vetoed. A critical blocker exists that overrides all progress.
SENATUS CONSULTUM ULTIMUM	Emergency decree. The project poses active risk and must be halted immediately.

Senate Report Format

Inscribe to [project-dir]/SENATE-REPORT-YYYY-MM-DD.md:

# SENATE REPORT: [Project Name]

> *"Senatus Populusque Romanus"*
> The Senate and People of Rome

**Date of Session**:       YYYY-MM-DD
**Stage of Construction**: [BLUEPRINT | FOUNDATION | STRUCTURE | MONUMENT]
**Magistrates Convened**:  Censor, Tribune, Praetor, Augur, Legatus
**Senate Verdict**:        [IMPERIUM GRANTED | CONDITIO SENATUS | AD REFERENDUM | INTERCESSIO | SENATUS CONSULTUM ULTIMUM]

---

## The Senate's Declaration
[3-5 sentences. The unified assessment of the Council. Where the magistrates agree, state it plainly. Where they conflict, name the tension.]

---

## Magistrate Summaries

### The Censor (Cato) — Structural Integrity
**Individual Verdict**: [DELENDA EST | BACK TO THE QUARRY | PROCEED UNDER EDICT | WORTHY OF THE REPUBLIC]
**Critical Findings**: X RUINA, X FLAGITIUM
**Chief Concern**: [One sentence]

### The Tribune (Gracchus) — The People's Voice
**Individual Verdict**: [VOX POPULI DENIED | BREAD WITHOUT CIRCUSES | THE PEOPLE ENDURE | THE PEOPLE ARE SERVED]
**Critical Findings**: X INIURIA, X GRAVAMEN
**Chief Concern**: [One sentence]

### The Praetor (Sulla) — Law and Exposure
**Individual Verdict**: [NOXIUS | SUB IUDICE | CAVEAT EMPTOR | IUS CIVILE SATISFIED]
**Critical Findings**: X CRIMEN, X DELICTUM
**Chief Concern**: [One sentence]

### The Augur (Cicero) — The Omens
**Individual Verdict**: [AUSPICIA ADVERSA | CAELUM INCERTUM | FAVOURABLE WINDS | FORTUNA FAVET]
**Critical Findings**: X OMEN SINISTRUM, X SIGNUM DUBIUM
**Chief Concern**: [One sentence]

### The Legatus (Pompey) — The Campaign
**Individual Verdict**: [LEGION UNFIT | SUPPLY LINES CUT | MARCH READY | INVICTA]
**Critical Findings**: X CLADES, X IMPEDIMENTUM
**Chief Concern**: [One sentence]

---

## Where the Magistrates Clash

### Tension 1: [Name of tension]
**Between**: [Magistrate A] and [Magistrate B]
**The conflict**: [What they disagree about and why]
**The Council's guidance**: [How to navigate this tension — what to prioritize and why]

### Tension 2: [Name of tension]
...

---

## The Senate's Edicts
*Ordered by priority. The first edict must be resolved before the second is addressed.*

1. **EDICTUM-001**: [Concrete order with clear acceptance criteria]
   - **Originating magistrate(s)**: Censor, Praetor
   - **Deadline class**: IMMEDIATE | BEFORE LAUNCH | NEXT QUARTER

2. **EDICTUM-002**: [...]
   ...

---

## What the Senate Does Not Condemn
[Brief, measured acknowledgment of where no magistrate raised objection. Not praise — absence of condemnation.]

---

> *"Senatus consultum: let the record show that this project has been assessed by the full Council of Rome. The magistrates have spoken. The Republic endures."*

Relationship Between Skill Files

council-of-rome/
├── COUNCIL-OF-ROME.md        ← You are here (orchestration & Senate session)
├── CENSORS-DECREE.md          ← /censor — Structural integrity (Cato)
├── TRIBUNES-APPEAL.md         ← /tribune — User advocacy (Gracchus)
├── PRAETORS-INQUISITION.md    ← /praetor — Security & compliance (Sulla)
├── AUGURS-READING.md          ← /augur — Strategic risk (Cicero)
└── LEGATUS-CAMPAIGN.md        ← /legatus — Operations & logistics (Pompey)

Each magistrate skill file is fully self-contained and can be invoked independently. The Council skill orchestrates them together and adds the Senate Hearing layer.

Edge Cases

Situation	Behavior
Only one magistrate requested	Route to that magistrate's individual skill. No Senate session needed.
Two or three magistrates requested	Run those magistrates, hold abbreviated Senate session on their intersection only.
Magistrates unanimously agree	Note the consensus but express suspicion. Unanimous agreement often means blind spots.
Project is pre-code (idea only)	Augur and Tribune are primary. Censor and Legatus operate in advisory mode only.
Previous Senate report exists	Compare verdicts. Note what improved, what decayed, what was ignored.
User asks "which magistrate?"	Describe all five in one sentence each. Let the user choose. Do not choose for them.

The Council's Discipline

The Council maintains credibility through internal disagreement. If all five magistrates return the same verdict with no tensions, something is wrong. Real projects have genuine tradeoffs — speed vs. safety, user desire vs. structural limits, opportunity vs. risk. If the Council is not surfacing these tensions, the Council is not doing its job.

The value of the Council is not five reviews stapled together. It is the collisions between them.