The ChR Praetor Pontilus was a Romulan bird-of-prey of the mid 22nd century. It was named in honor of Pontilus, the first Praetor of the Romulan Star Empire.
Service history and disposition[]
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 experienced odd side effects (such as cloaking and decloaking at apparently random moments), was unable to maintain its antimatter containment systems, and was destroyed in the process. (ENT episode: "Minefield"; ENT 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")
WizKids gives the name of this ship as the RIS Prateus in Star Trek Heroclix Tactics II.
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Connections[]
| 22nd century bird-of-prey starships | ||
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Brak'en • D'soria • D'tervik • Joran • Lubato • Maruccius • Mentenius • Munia • Narrocian • Opalius • Pesanius • Pola • Praetor Pontilus • Sapotius • Setro • Solus • Strato • Tovarek • Truntis • Velosh • Vrenek • unnamed 22nd century Romulan bird-of-prey starships |
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