Art history's Maggie Popkin shares the origins of triumphal arches in ancient Rome

The Roman legacy of triumphal arches
History: Maggie Popkin, professor in the Department of Art History and Art, shared the origins of triumphal arches in ancient Rome. “Earlier architectural traditions used arches as part of other structures, but it was the Romans who took the arch and made it a freestanding monument,” she said. “The triumphal arch is a uniquely Roman invention.”