During a Roman siege, which risk increased from prolonged use of a torsion-powered ballista firing large stones?

💡 Explanation

With prolonged ballista use, repetitive torsion cycling causes individual rope fibers to weaken on a molecular level transferring stress unevenly as microcracks accumulate eventually leading to catastrophic failure . Therefore rope degradation is most severe, rather than the alternatives that are less directly tied to material fatigue from the torsion cycles in the ropes.

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