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ἀλλʼ Ἀμυνίας ὁ Σέλλου μᾶλλον οὑκ τῶν Κρωβύλων,
The phrase οὑκ τῶν Κρωβύλων relies on a specific comic convention where the genitive plural of a deme name (Κρωβύλων, from Κρωβύλος) functions as a shorthand for 'a man from the deme of Kroboulos.' This construction is standard in Old Comedy for identifying characters by their deme (a form of prosopographical shorthand), but the elision of the preposition ἐκ or the article οἱ before the genitive is a metrical necessity here, not a generic grammatical feature. The reference to Amynias, son of Sello, specifically contrasts his identity with the notorious Krobouloi, a deme known in Aristophanic comedy for producing litigious or unruly characters (cf. Lysistrata 126, where the Krobouloi are mentioned in a similar context of civic friction). This is not merely a geographical tag but a loaded allusion to the specific social reputation of the Krobouloi within the Athenian political imagination of the 5th century BCE.
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δειπνοῦντα μετὰ Λεωγόρου·
The participle δειπνοῦντα ('dining') is in the accusative case, functioning as a supplement to the implied subject of the surrounding context (likely a participle of perception or a verb of motion/state in the missing antecedent clause). This construction, where the accusative participle denotes an action simultaneous with the main verb's subject, is standard for Aristophanic dialogue but requires attention to the elided verb of the main clause to identify the actor. The specific pairing with Λεωγόρου (the genitive 'of Leogoras') indicates a meal shared with this prominent Athenian, whose political career and subsequent trial for impiety (c. 415 BCE) provide a sharp satirical edge to the scene, contrasting the domestic intimacy of the dinner with the public danger Leogoras faced.
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The name Ἀντιφῶν (Antiphon) is the crucial crux here. The text likely refers to Antiphon of Rhamnus (the orator and sophist, executed in 411 BCE), whose reputation for extreme frugality and rigorous self-denial was proverbial in Athens. The comedy relies on the audience recognizing that the character Philocleon (the 'old man' suffering from his obsession with jury duty) is being compared to a man known for his severe, almost pathological, poverty and hunger. This identification is essential because the joke is not merely that someone is hungry, but that they are hungry in the specific, notorious manner associated with this specific historical figure, whose very name had become a byword for ascetic deprivation.
