Romulan Ranks

Unlike the Klingon Defense Force, which seems to be an all-in-one military branch, the Romulan Star Empire appears to have navy and army branches.

Most fans are familiar with the naval ranks (listed from low to high) from the original Star Trek series (TOS).

• Centurion
• Subcommander (e.g., Tal, TOS's "The Enterprise Incident")
• Commander

When Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) came along, it added a fairly uncreative rank to the list of canon:

• Admiral (e.g., Alidar Jarok, TNG's "The Defector")
  

Four grades isn't much to speak of in a military organization, particularly when there's the example of the Romulan Commander (from TOS's "Balance of Terror") reducing his man Decius a whole "two steps in rank." How do we figure this from a list of four ranks, most of which belong to senior officers?

Pocket Books' original Star Trek novels, although not canon, have helped flesh out the Romulan naval grades by adding a new rank, "decurion" (a bona fide Roman rank), which, based on its Webster's definition, would be subordinate to a centurion.

Here, then, is my initial list (from low to high):

• Decurion
• Centurion (e.g., Bochra, TNG's "The Enemy")
• Subcommander
• Commander (e.g., Tebok, TNG's "The Neutral Zone")
• Admiral

Now, given these five grades, we can infer a few others by using the prefix "sub-," which the Romulans favor, and thereby expand the ranks of the navy:

• Subdecurion
• Decurion
• Subcenturion
• Centurion
• Subcommander
• Commander (prod, as per the 2009 Star Trek movie)
• Subadmiral
• Admiral

The great Diane Duane, who authored many pre-TNG novels at Pocket Books, and is generally considered by fans to have laid out working versions of the Romulan military and the government, first postulated the "subcenturion" rank, but also had another — "antecenturion" — which is not included here because the prefixes "ante-" and "sub-" basically infer the same thing (i.e., "before" and "below," respectively).

TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), whether knowingly or not, also initiated an army branch to the Romulan military (ranks are low to high):

• Sublieutenant (e.g., Setal, TNG's "The Defector")
• Major (e.g., Rakal, TNG's "Face of the Enemy")
• Colonel (e.g., Lovok, DS9's "The Die Is Cast")
• General (e.g., Velal, DS9's "When It Rains …")

Again, four grades isn't much to speak of; however, we can infer a few others by using the prefix "sub-" and thereby expand the ranks of the army. Thus, the final list (from low to high) would be:

• Sublieutenant
• Lieutenant
• Submajor
• Major
• Subcolonel
• Colonel
• Subgeneral
• General

Conjecture: Two of these ranks have been held by Tal Shiar officers (i.e., Rakal and Lovok), which may infer that they are only used by Romulan intelligence, not an army.

As you can see, both branches have eight ranks apiece, which also means they are corresponding ranks (i.e., "admiral" = "general," "commander" = "colonel," etc.).

(Note: There is no Romulan military rank of "captain." However, in the 2009 Star Trek movie, Nero, a civilian miner, used it to denote himself as commanding officer of the Narada.)

If you're a Star Trek writer, then please share these lists with your friends and colleagues, and consider standardizing them (especially at Pocket Books).