A question about the Romulans and SFC

[Stofsk]

In the computer game Starfleet Command you can play as the Romulans, and there are a number of ranks you can achieve through combat missions. The game is on my other computer, the one which I don't have. I was wondering if anyone who has the game can tell me the ranks and in what order they advance, with their starfleet equivalents.

Also, in the show it is established that there is a Rank of Centurion - "Balance of Terror" and "The Enemy" - but in both cases, the character who held the rank did not seem to be particularly important i.e. he wasn't a commander or admiral. So what exactly is a Centurion and what does he do onboard a Romulan ship?

[wautd]

If it has the same meaning as it did for the Romans, a centurion commands 100 men

just a guess offcourse

[Patrick Ogaard]

Historically, a centurion was a senior noncommisioned officer in the ancient Roman military service. A junior centurion would have commanded a single century, a unit normally composed of 60 to 80 soldiers. The primus pilus, the politically connected senior centurion in command of the 1st cohort of the legion, was effectively the tactical and administrative commander of the legion (and entitled to a cut of the promotion kickbacks soldiers had to pay their centurions, as well as the bribes soldiers paid to get out of tasks like the digging of latrines).

Basic Roman rank breakdown (roughly around Caesar's day):

common soldier = miles gregarius
guard sergeant = tesserarius
optio = second in command to the centurio
centurio = company commander and beyond

For the 2nd through 10th cohorts (battalions) of a legion, the centurions were distinguished only by seniority (in order from highest to lowest: pilus prior, pilus posterior, princeps prior, princeps posterior, hastatus prior, hastatus posterior), with the seniormost in command of the cohort.

The 1st cohort's centurions were the ones with the most seniority, and were collectively designated as primi ordines. Their ranks were primus pilus, princeps, hastatus, princeps posterior, and hastatus posterior.

There were also officers, of course:
1. the camp prefect (praefectus castrorum), third-in-command of the legion

2. five equestrian tribunes (tribunus angusticlavus), who held staff appointments

3. a senatorial tribune (tribunus laticlavius), second-in-command of the legion, a young nobleman being groomed for legion command

4. the legate (legatus legionis), the actual commander, a mature senator who knows the ropes.

There was also a headquarters adjutant (cornicularius), along with various clerks (librarii), orderlies (beneficiarii), and all the tradesmen who served in the legions (immunes) and were exempted from ordinary grunt work, guard duty and the like because they were busy providing other useful skills.

Since the Romulans seem to always be portrayed as more Roman than the Romans, right down to their ranks, I thought it might be useful to bring up more fodder for the Romulan rank game.

The centurion from 'Balance of Terror' was almost certainly the most senior noncommissioned officer on the Romulan vessel, the commander's ear on the lower decks, and either the voice of experience or (for a less able centurion) the commander's yes-man.

[Stofsk]

The centurion from 'Balance of Terror' was almost certainly the most senior noncommissioned officer on the Romulan vessel, the commander's ear on the lower decks, and either the voice of experience or (for a less able centurion) the commander's yes-man.

I always gathered that he was 'Chief of the Boat' or something; like you said, the most senior noncom on the ship. This correlates well with "The Enemy" where the Romulan on Galorndan Core doesn't seem particularly knowledgable about the mission or forthright about it either, which isn't terribly surprising, but he seemed to me to be a grunt. Gut feeling, mainly.

[Patrick Degan]

The centurion from 'Balance of Terror' was almost certainly the most senior noncommissioned officer on the Romulan vessel, the commander's ear on the lower decks, and either the voice of experience or (for a less able centurion) the commander's yes-man.

I always gathered that he was 'Chief of the Boat' or something; like you said, the most senior noncom on the ship. This correlates well with "The Enemy" where the Romulan on Galorndan Core doesn't seem particularly knowledgable about the mission or forthright about it either, which isn't terribly surprising, but he seemed to me to be a grunt. Gut feeling, mainly.

A centurion seems to be a commissioned officer, if the parallels to Roman rankings are the model here. The Romulan Kirk impersonated in "The Enteprise Incident" was of centurion rank and he was treated as an officer by the crewman who came across him.

Recall that in the Roman army, a Centurion denoted a legionary officer who commanded a century, or 80 men; the equivalent of an infantry company in present-day military organisation. Noncoms in the Roman legions, or Principales, ranked from the eagle-bearers, the Aquilifers, down through Signifiers (centuria standard-bearers and paymasters), Optios, Tesseraria, Comiceni, and Imaginifieri . Of these, the Optios and Tesseraria acted as a Centurion's seconds-in-command, appointed from the no-ranks, and would therefore be the equivalents to the company sergents.

[Crazedwraith]

Well according to My Star Trek Encyclopidia. Centurion is rougly equivilent to a federation Captain or commander IIRC.

[General Zod]

Well according to My Star Trek Encyclopidia. Centurion is rougly equivilent to a federation Captain or commander IIRC.

a lieutenant or commander may be accurate, given in the TOS episode the subcommander outranked the centurion.

[Sarevok]

Also, in the show it is established that there is a Rank of Centurion - "Balance of Terror" and "The Enemy" - but in both cases, the character who held the rank did not seem to be particularly important i.e. he wasn't a commander or admiral. So what exactly is a Centurion and what does he do onboard a Romulan ship?

According to the documentation and ingame information in Armada Centurions are elite Romulan space marines. However I am not sure if this information has any basis in canon Star Trek.

[Bartman]

In the computer game Starfleet Command you can play as the Romulans, and there are a number of ranks you can achieve through combat missions. The game is on my other computer, the one which I don't have. I was wondering if anyone who has the game can tell me the ranks and in what order they advance, with their starfleet equivalents.

Here is the relevent bit from strings.txt (the file the game pulls this from). I have edited it for clarity. This is of course completely non cannonical as far as the show is concerned.

United Federation of Planets
||Lt. Commander
||Commander
||Captain
||Commodore
||Rear Admiral

Klingon Empire
||Lt. Commander
||Commander
||Captain
||Commodore
||Rear Admiral

Romulan Star Empire
||Ante-Tribune
||Tribune
||Sub-Commander
||Commander
||Sub-Admiral

Lyran Star Empire
||Lt. Commander
||Commander
||Captain
||Commodore

Hydran Kingdom
||Sub Commander
||Commander
||Captain
||Commodore
||Third Admiral
||Sr. Commodore

Gorn Confederation
||Jr. Commander
||Sr. Commander
||Jr. Captain
||Sr. Captain
||Commodore

Interstellar Concordium
||Lieutenant
||Commander
||Captain
||Commodore
||Admiral

Mirak Star League
||Sub-Commander
||Commander
||Captain
||Group Captain
||Fleet Captain