Emphruri
ἔμφρουροι
Emphruri (ἔμφρουροι), from (φρουρά, the name given to the Spartan citizens and Perioeci during the period in which they were liable to military service. (Xen. Rep. Lac. 5, § 7.) This period lasted to the fortieth year from manhood (ἀφ̓ ἥβης), that is to say, to the sixtieth year from birth; and during this time a man could not go out of the country without permission from the authorities. (Isocr. Busir. § 18, where μάχιμος, according to Müller, Dor. 3.12.1, is evidently put for ἔμφρουρος.)
The only exemption was for the father of three sons, who became ἄφρουρος (Aristot. Pol. 2.9=p. 1270 b, 3; Aelian, Ael. VH 6.6). For the rule of superannuation at sixty, cf. Xen. Hell. 5.4, § 13; Plut. Ages. 24. The word φρουρά, as Schömann observes, is characteristic of Spartan modes of thought; all Laconia was a camp, the Spartiatae a garrison (Schömann, Antiq. 1.279, E. T.; Gilbert, Staatsalterth. 1.77).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.