Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Romulans

The law fell silent when getting the Romulans to join the Dominion War, and then again when trying to keep them in it. It might not have been the Starfleet thing to do, but when in twenty-fourth century Rome… The 'silent' of Cicero and Admiral Ross' 'inter arma enim… ' also applies to the war between Earth and the Romulans. We know it happened, but, in canon, most of the detail remains unsaid.

From Spock in full-on historian mode in Balance of Terror, we learnt that the Earth-Romulan War (or "conflict") was fought "with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels," during which neither side saw the face of the other before the Neutral Zone Treaty was negotiated by subspace radio. Aside from the occasional reference in-between, that's really all we had to go on until Star Trek: Enterprise.

It's another one of those 'Quick! Pause and squint at the screen on the screen!' moments from In a Mirror Darkly, Part II. The Defiant's database keeps on giving! If you do look hard enough at "Historical Archive: Starfleet" in the Captain's quarters, you'll see the canon confirmation of what had been vaguely hypothetical: "2156: Romulan Wars begin between Earth forces and the Romulan Star Empire." Then, in the next entry: "2160: Romulan Wars ended by the Battle of Cheron."

For the equally and forever hypothetical fifth season of Enterprise, showrunners had planned for the Romulans to be the "big villain" and to "begin whispers of the Romulan War." The war has since been explored in beta canon, for example in Michael A. Martin's mini-series Beneath the Raptor's Wing and To Brave the Storm. Several fan productions the likes of Star Trek: The Romulan Wars, Star Trek: Horizon, and The Romulan War: A Star Trek Fan Production have also sought to end the silence on the conflict.