Names of the Forum
The Forum of Domitian today.
The Forum is most commonly known as the Forum of Domitian, because it was planned and begun by the emperor Domitian (81-96 CE). However, Domitian was assassinated and condemned to damnatio memoriae before its completion, and so some call it the Forum of Nerva, after Domitian’s successor, who completed and dedicated the Forum in 97 CE.
Most ancient sources after the middle of the 3rd century CE, including Servius, Eutropius, and the Historia Augusta, call it the Forum Transitorium, the Transitory Forum, because it connects the Forum Romanum to the Subura and is adjacent to the other three Imperial Fora. The historian Aurelius Victor, at the end of the 3rd century CE, refers to it as the Forum Pervium, meaning through the road, for similar reasons.
The Roman poet Martial, who is the chief surviving contemporary source, refers to it as the Forum Palladium, after Pallas Minerva, and the Forum Caesaris, after what had become a standard title for Roman emperors.1
1. Richardson, L., Jr. "Forum Nervae." In A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, 167-69. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 1992.