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Romulan history describes the rise of an Empire from a group of Vulcan fugitives.
Early history
An atomic bomb explodes during the Time of Awakening on Vulcan
Vulcans were once an extremely violent and emotional people, waging almost constant warfare upon one another. (TOS: "Balance of Terror"; ENT: "The Forge") As their technology improved, the Vulcans eventually reached a point where their violent nature threatened the extinction of their species. (ENT: "Awakening"; TNG: "Gambit, Part II") Around 370 AD, the philosopher Surak led his people in a great reformation to embrace logic and pacifism. (TOS: "The Savage Curtain") One group, known as "those who march beneath the Raptor's wings", rejected Surak's teachings and fought against his followers. These dissidents would become the future Romulans. (TNG: "Gambit, Part II"; ENT: "Awakening")
Romulus, the Romulan homeworld and capital planet of the Romulan Star Empire
Around 470 AD, the dissident Vulcans left their homeworld. During their travels, some of their number split away to form the Debrune civilization, which became extinct long before the 24th century. (TNG: "Gambit, Part I") The dissidents eventually settled on two planets named Romulus and Remus, and took on the identity of Romulans. (TNG: "Unification I")
At some point after the establishment of the Empire, the Romulans fought a century-long war with the Vulcans. Q would later reveal that the conflict was instigated by one of Quinn's "self-destructive stunts". (VOY: "Death Wish")
22nd century
A Bird-of-Prey pursues the Enterprise NX-01 in 2152 after it violated Romulan territory.
The Empire's first recorded contact with Humans occurred in 2152. The Starfleet vessel Enterprise NX-01, discovered a planet recently annexed by the Romulans, and was damaged by a cloaked spatial mine, part of a minefield surrounding the planet. A Bird-of-Prey warned the Enterprise off without a further exchange of fire. (ENT: "Minefield")
A deep-cover agent within the Vulcan High Command, Major Talok tried to facilitate an early re-unification of Romulus and Vulcan in 2154.
A collaboration with Administrator V'Las of the Vulcan High Command was part of a decades-long effort to "reunify" the Romulan and Vulcan "cousins", presumably under Romulan rule. However, a group of Vulcans named Syrrannites followed the logical teachings of Surak and were a threat to the Romulan plans of reunification. Secretly working with a Romulan deep-cover agent within the Vulcan High Command known as Major Talok, V'Las framed the Syrranites for the destruction of the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. The conspiracy ultimately led to the nearly-disastrous Battle of Andoria between Vulcan and the Andorian Empire in 2154. However, V'Las was eventually identified as being behind the bombings and was deposed. (ENT: "The Forge", "Kir'Shara")
Two Romulan drone-ships in 2154.
As it was mainly due to the Earth starship Enterprise NX-01 and its crew that the Romulan plot was thwarted, it became more evident for the Star Empire that the Humans were rising as a regional power. United Earth practiced a mediating, even unifying, influence on its neighbors so the prospect of an alliance contrary to Romulan interests led to their covert attempts to destabilize the region and the fragile peace. Therefore, the Romulans precipitated the "Babel Crisis" by deploying telepresence-operated drone-ships equipped with chameleon-like camouflage systems. Though briefly wreaking havoc on regional shipping and diplomacy, the Romulan effort ultimately failed. A temporary alliance of Human, Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite starships thwarted the drone-ship threat, prompting closer diplomatic relations that eventually led to the Coalition of Planets. (ENT: "Babel One", "United", "The Aenar", "Demons")
Relations between Romulans and United Earth deteriorated into open war in the following years. Beginning in 2156, the Earth-Romulan War was fought without any kind of personal or visual interaction between the two sides, preventing Humans or allies from fully understanding the nature of their opponent. Following a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Cheron in 2160, the Romulans agreed to a treaty establishing a Neutral Zone between the Star Empire's sphere of influence and territory that would fall under the jurisdiction of the soon to be formed United Federation of Planets. (TOS: "Balance of Terror"; TNG: "The Defector")
For the next century, Romulans isolated themselves from Human and Federation affairs. However, they remained very active within their own sphere of influence, fighting a number of campaigns, the nature of which is unknown. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")
23rd century
In 2266, the Empire emerged from seclusion to test the strength of its old enemy. The Romulan Praetor ordered his finest flagship, a Bird-of-Prey led by an experienced commander, to violate the Neutral Zone and attack the Federation's observation outposts that lined the border in Sector Z-6.
Equipped with a cloak and a powerful new plasma torpedo system, the Bird-of-Prey easily annihilated its targets. A victorious homecoming, revealing Federation weaknesses, would have aroused the Empire to another war, but the marauding Romulan vessel was intercepted and defeated by the USS Enterprise before success could be reported.
The incident marked the Federation's first confirmed visual observation of the Vulcan-like Romulan appearance. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")
During this era, many lower-ranking members of Romulan ship crews wore distinctive helmets, and were seen to stand, rather than sit, at their posts. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")
In the face of Federation strength, the Empire vigilantly patrolled their side of the zone. Further encounters with Starfleet's Constitution-class starships were countered by squadrons of up to ten Birds-of-Prey to better the odds.
A brief but ultimately unsuccessful thawing in relations occurred in 2267 between the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingon Empire, and the Federation, with the founding of a jointly-managed colony on Nimbus III. Dubbed the "planet of galactic peace," the colony quickly became an embarrassing failure for all three governments, although regular meetings between representatives did take place at the colony for at least the next twenty years. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
In 2268, a devastating polaric ion device explosion resulted in the destruction of a Romulan research colony on Chaltok IV. Following this incident, the Star Empire, together with the Federation, signed the Polaric Test Ban Treaty, banning research on polaric energy on both sides. (VOY: "Time and Again")
Also in 2268, Starfleet violated established treaties by ordering the USS Enterprise to pass through the Romulan Neutral Zone into Romulan space, where its crew confronted three Romulan ships and returned with both a Romulan cloaking device and a captured Romulan commander. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")
A product of the short-lived Romulan-Klingon Alliance: A Romulan D7 class battle cruiser equipped with cloaking technology
After a technology exchange with the Klingon Empire, the first Romulan D7 class design battle cruisers began appearing along the zone by 2268. Around this time, the warp drive technology aquired ny the Romulans, allowed them to expand into the Alpha Quadrant. This Romulan-Klingon Alliance had come to an end by 2271, however, when the Romulans suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt (the "Briar Patch") at the hands of Klingon forces led by Kor. By 2292, Romulans and Klingons regarded each other as "blood enemies". (TOS: "The Deadly Years", "The Enterprise Incident"; TNG: "Reunion"; DS9: "Blood Oath"; Star Trek: Insurrection)
By the mid-2280s, Romulans had lost their virtual monopoly as the region's best stealth technologists when cloaking devices began seeing service on Klingon vessels. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
As the Klingons and Federation began détente in 2293, the Romulans attempted diplomatic subterfuge through Ambassador Nanclus' role in the Khitomer conspiracy – yet another failing effort. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
24th century
The Tomed Incident of 2311, an encounter between the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation that cost thousands of lives, led to the Treaty of Algeron, which forbade the Federation from developing cloaking technology and clarified that violations of the Neutral Zone without adequate notification, by either side, would be considered an act of war. Subsequent to the incident, the Empire returned to a policy of isolation from the Federation. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "The Defector", "The Pegasus")
A D'deridex-class warbird in 2364. The D'deridex-class was one of the most common Romulan ship designs during the 2nd half of the 24th century
Though periodic, titular allies, the relationship between the Romulan and Klingon Empires was effectively a decades-long, "hot" and "cold" war of bitterly antagonistic cultures. In 2344, four Romulan warbirds attacked a Klingon outpost on Narendra III and destroyed the Federation starship that answered the distress call, the USS Enterprise-C.
Another outpost attack, the Khitomer Massacre of 2346, was facilitated by a secret pact with the Klingon House of Duras that undermined a broader Klingon-Romulan alliance. The offensives of the 2340s caused the Klingons to regard the Romulans as "blood enemies", and the Federation-Klingon alliance strengthened. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of the Father", "Reunion")
In the meantime Romulans diverted their attentions to other corners of the Empire far from the Federation borders, allowing it to grow. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone")
In 2364, Romulan battle cruisers converged near a Federation border post. USS Berlin answered the call. (TNG: "Angel One")
Later that year, the Empire was alerted by the mysterious destruction of border outposts on either side of the Federation/Romulan Neutral Zone. A Romulan Warbird was sent to investigate. Commander Tebok realized that the destruction was of different level of what the Federation would ever do. Meanwhile the USS Enterprise-D was also sent to investigate and establish contact with the Romulans after five decades. Captain Jean-Luc Picard proposed a cooperative investigation but was turned down. This incident, which unknown to both factions was caused by the Borg, caused the Empire to take notice, resuming an active, oppositional interest in their neighbor's affairs through the 2360s. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone")
The Klingon Civil War
- Main article: Klingon Civil War
Upon reemerging from their isolationist state, the Empire returned to their attempts to destabilize the peace of the quadrant, through efforts to sever the Federation-Klingon Alliance. In 2367, the Commander Sela abducted Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise-D. They brainwashed him in an attempt to use him to assassinate the Klingon Vagh, governor of Krios. The assassination was foiled by Enterprise personnel. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")
Shortly thereafter, as part of the Empire's ongoing relations with the House of Duras, the Romulans became involved in the Klingon Civil War of 2367-2368. A convoy led by Commander Sela provided supplies to the Duras family to use against the forces of Chancellor Gowron. Their intervention was discovered by the Federation, and a Federation task force of twenty starships blockaded the Klingon-Romulan border, allowing Gowron's forces to prevail. (TNG: "Redemption")
Reunification
Ambassador Spock, a central figure in the underground Romulan-Vulcan reunification movement, on Romulus in 2368
The failure to end the Federation-Klingon Alliance did not stop the Empire from continuing their opposition to the Federation. In 2368, the Romulans attempted to gain a foothold within the Federation by using the underground Romulan-Vulcan reunification movement as a cover. Through Senator Pardek, a man trusted by the unificationists, Proconsul Neral captured Ambassador Spock, Captain Picard, and Lt. Commander Data. As Romulan forces moved into Federation space under a guise of peace, the three prisoners subdued their captors and warned Starfleet of the Romulan invasion. (TNG: "Unification I")
The underground unification movement continued even after this blow. In 2369, a prominent government official, vice-proconsul M'ret, spoke out against the repressive policies of the government, and to avoid execution, he successfully escaped across the Federation border through the help of the Romulan underground movement. (TNG: "Face of the Enemy")
Dominion War
- Main article: Dominion War
The emergence of the Dominion threat in 2370 led to the first thaw in the Empire's relations with the Federation. In 2371, the Romulans agreed to amend the Treaty of Algeron to permit the use of a cloaking device on the USS Defiant for Gamma Quadrant operations, in exchange for intelligence gathered regarding the Dominion. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone"; DS9: "The Search, Part I")
The combined fleet of the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order fires upon the Founders' homeworld in 2371
Through their agreement with Starfleet, the Romulans gained information on the Founders, their control of the Jem'Hadar through ketracel-white, and the location of their homeworld. In response, the Tal Shiar conspired with the Cardassian Obsidian Order to launch a joint attack on the Founders. However, the Tal Shiar had been infiltrated by a changeling agent, and the resulting battle in the Omarion Nebula proved catastrophic for both the Romulans and the Cardassians. (DS9: "The Die is Cast")
When the Dominion gained a major foothold in the Alpha Quadrant through the incorporation of the Cardassian Union in 2373, the Romulans dispatched a fleet of warbirds to Deep Space 9 in anticipation of an imminent Dominion attack, joining the Klingon and Federation forces there. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light") However, after war did not immediately break out, the Romulan Senate eventually opted to sign a non-aggression pact with the Dominion. (DS9: "Call to Arms") The pact was negotiated by Senator Vreenak, who remained an ardently pro-Dominion voice in the Romulan government. (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")
The Romulans thus did not participate in the early months of the Dominion War, though some analyses suggested that they would eventually join the war against the Dominion. (DS9: "Statistical Probabilities") Nevertheless, the Romulans were turning a blind eye to Dominion forces crossing their space to ambush Federation ships. Concluding that the war could not be won without Romulan involvement, Captain Benjamin Sisko and Elim Garak undertook a covert operation to convince the Romulans that the Dominion posed an imminent threat. The operation ended with the assassination of Senator Vreenak, which the Romulans blamed on the Dominion. (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")
In the wake of Vreenak's death and the discovery of apparent Dominion invasion plans, the Romulan Star Empire formally declared war. Within hours, Romulan forces attacked fifteen bases along the Cardassian-Romulan border, opening up a new front and relieving pressure on the Federation and Klingon lines. (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight") The Romulans soon sent representatives, such as Senator Cretak, to coordinate war plans with their new allies, and eventually established a permanent presence on Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Image in the Sand") Interactions between the formerly adversarial powers though remained fractious, and the Federation was often forced to mediate disputes between the Romulans and the Klingons. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets") At one point, an attempt by the Romulans to place heavy weapons on the Bajoran moon Derna nearly shattered the alliance. (DS9: "Shadows and Symbols")
The USS Bellerophon conducting a diplomatic mission to Romulus in 2375.
During the war, diplomatic relations between the Romulans and the Federation improved. In 2375, the Federation embargo on Romulan ale was lifted, and a Romulan-Federation conference took place on Romulus. On the other hand, both sides were aware that they would be rivals for influence in the quadrant once the Dominion was defeated. Espionage and covert operations were rampant, including an effort by Starfleet and Section 31 to place a Federation agent on the powerful Romulan Continuing Committee. (DS9: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges")
Major Romulan engagements during the war included the liberation of Benzar, (DS9: "The Reckoning") and twelve successful campaigns led by Shinzon of Remus. The Romulans often employed Reman shock troops in the most violent encounters. (Star Trek Nemesis) Romulan forces were involved in most major battles in the latter parts of the Dominion War, including the first and second battles in the Chin'toka system and the final push against Cardassia Prime. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets", "The Changing Face of Evil", "What You Leave Behind") A female Romulan dignitary represented the Empire at the Dominion surrender ceremony on Deep Space 9. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")
USS Voyager
In 2351, the science vessel Talvath under the command of Dr. Telek R'Mor of the Romulan Astrophysical Academy was studying a unnamed micro-wormhole in Sector 1385 when it was contacted by the USS Voyager, a Federation starship stranded in the Delta Quadrant. After several exchanges, Telek R'Mor agreed to beam aboard Voyager, where he learned the ship was from twenty years in the future. Since Voyager's crew decided not to return and wait twenty years before they could resume their lives, it was decided to return Telek R'Mor with letters from the crew to their families, to be delivered before Voyager was lost in the Badlands. Telek R'Mor unfortunately died in 2367, four years before the letters could be delivered, and was unable to deliver them. (VOY: "Eye of the Needle", "Message in a Bottle")
Voyager was also indirectly responsible for the failure of a Tal Shiar operation carried out by Rekar, with his aide Nevala, to steal the USS Prometheus in 2374. Voyager had sent their EMH, The Doctor, through the Hirogen communications network to the starship. Once aboard, The Doctor quickly learned that the crew had been killed and the ship was in Romulan hands. The Doctor, along with the help of the Prometheus' EMH Mark II, were able to incapacitate the Romulans aboard with neurozine gas shortly before three D'deridex-class warbirds arrived. A Starfleet task force arrived shorty thereafter, and after the destruction of one of their ships, the Romulans retreated. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle")
After the disappearance of a holographic representation of himself meant to be delivered to Voyager in 2377, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay first blamed the Romulans, citing that they've been interested in Voyager for years!. (VOY: "Inside Man")
The Reman Uprising
The Romulan Senate in 2379, during its session rejecting to cooperate with Shinzon and the Remans
In 2379, Shinzon, a Human clone of Starfleet captain Jean-Luc Picard, gained support from the Romulan military and eventually planned to take over the Romulan Star Empire by appointing himself as Praetor and assassinating the entire Romulan Senate, except Senator Tal'aura, who had been later allied with Shinzon along with Commanders Suran and Donatra.
When the Federation starship USS Enterprise-E arrived at the Romulan system for peace talks between the Federation and the Romulans, Shinzon delayed. This delay was part of a ruse, taken due to his accelerating deterioration, so that he could capture Captain Picard and use him to return to health.
Unfortunately for Shinzon, Picard successfully escaped, and Shinzon pursued him to the Bassen Rift where Picard again eluded capture with the assistance of Romulan reinforcements. Commander Donatra had realized that Shinzon didn't just plan to attack the Federation, but actually planned total annihilation for Humanity and other species. Ultimately, Shinzon was killed in hand-to-hand combat with Picard aboard his starship, the Scimitar, just before the ship's thalaron radiation generator was overloaded by Commander Data, who sacrificed his life to save the Enterprise.
In the aftermath of the Battle of the Bassen Rift, the newly minted Captain William T. Riker of the USS Titan, led a task force to the Federation-Romulan border to engage direct negotiations for a final peace between the two sides, which would hopefully lead to a greater understanding and a new era of peace in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. (Star Trek Nemesis)
Catastrophe
A supernova destroys Romulus
In 2387, a nearby star went supernova and threatened Romulus with annihilation. Ambassador Spock pledged to save Romulus by detonating red matter into the star, turning it into a black hole. However, he arrived too late and the star was consumed by the red matter singularity only after its supernova destroyed Romulus. (Star Trek)
Alternate timelines
In an unknown, alternate future timeframe, the Klingon Empire entered an expansionist phase that brought it and the Romulan Star Empire to war. The Romulans were defeated, with their territory occupied by the Klingons. This timeline was avoided by the actions of Jean-Luc Picard. (TNG: "All Good Things...")
In an alternate timeline caused by the USS Defiant accidentally sending three officers into Earth's past, the Federation never came to be. When the crew of the Defiant scanned for Federation and alien outposts all they could find were Romulan transmissions detected in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri in 2371. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")
In the alternate reality created by Nero, by 2258 the Federation had become aware of the Romulans' common ancestry with the Vulcans, and all three of their dialects had become understandable to at least one communications officer. (Star Trek)