ChR Praetor Pontilus

Praetor Pontilus was a Romulan Bird-of-Prey of the mid 22nd century.

The Praetor Pontilus was notable in that it was the first Romulan vessel to feature a cloaking device. While Romulans had been able to successfully cloak smaller objects, such as mines by the mid 22nd century, cloaking technology was still a new technology, and cloaking larger objects was problematic. The power requirements to cloak a ship were such that the Praetor Pontilus was unable to maintain its antimatter containment systems, and was destroyed in the process. (ENT episode: Minefield; novel: The Good That Men Do)

After the loss of the Praetor Pontilus, it would be over a century until the Romulans were finally able to develop and deploy a cloaking device capable of cloaking a starship. (TOS episode: Balance of Terror)