My purpose is to compare the different explanations that have been offered of the expression propius periclo it timor. This is its context. Evander, king of Pallanteum, has decided to send cavalry under the command of his son Pallas to assist the Trojans and Etruscans in the war against Turnus. When a report spreads that the cavalry are about to set out, the mothers of the soldiers are alarmed.

uota metu duplicant matres, propiusque periclo

it timor et maior Martis iam apparet imago.

‘The mothers redouble their vows in fear, fear goes closer to (or in) the danger, and the image of Mars appears greater.’ James Henry writes: ‘The women, who had previously … made vows, felt fear, and seen the image of war before them (viz. in their minds), now, when the war has thus come to their very door, … double their vows, feel a sharper fear, and see their picture, image, or idea of war larger than it was before. ‘But propius periclo it has been explained in other ways. Some think periclo dative, other (like James Henry) ablative. Conington increases the confusion by citing the explanations of Heyne and Wagner as if they were compatible with his own translation.