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← HistoryWhich mechanism caused the eventual breaching of Roman fortifications during prolonged sieges, despite their advanced design?
A)Undermining weakening foundational integrity✓
B)Ballista fire directly collapsing walls
C)Ramp construction overwhelming defenses
D)Ladder scaling overcoming wall heights
💡 Explanation
When attackers employed undermining (siege mining), soil erosion weakens the foundations because soil displacement reduces load-bearing capacity, destabilizing the structural integrity over time. Therefore, collapse via undermining results, rather than direct collapse from ballista fire, ramp overrunning or ladder scaling whose effectiveness decreases with strong foundations.
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