Herodotus, Histories 1.61.4 · 1.61.4
Money and men for the return
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μετὰ δέ, οὐ πολλῷ λόγῳ εἰπεῖν, χρόνος διέφυ καὶ πάντα σφι ἐξήρτυτο ἐς τὴν κάτοδον· καὶ γὰρ Ἀργεῖοι μισθωτοὶ ἀπίκοντο ἐκ Πελοποννήσου, καὶ Νάξιός σφι ἀνὴρ ἀπιγμένος ἐθελοντής, τῷ οὔνομα ἦν Λύγδαμις, προθυμίην πλείστην παρείχετο, κομίσας καὶ χρήματα καὶ ἄνδρας.
And afterward, not to make a long story of it, time passed, and everything was made ready for their return. For Argive mercenaries came from the Peloponnese, and a Naxian man who had come as a volunteer, whose name was Lygdamis, showed the greatest zeal, bringing both money and men.
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The setting
Following Hippias's advice, the family has spent years gathering support: gifts from indebted cities, Argive mercenaries, and now a Naxian volunteer, Lygdamis, with money and men.
A note on this passage
Herodotus interrupts himself here: ou pollōi logōi eipein, "not to make a long story of it," admitting he is skipping over years of preparation in a single clause. The verb for the stretch of time itself, diephy, literally "grew through," treats the years between exile and return almost as something that grows on its own, while the household works quietly behind the scenes, gathering Argeioi misthōtoi, Argive mercenaries, paid soldiers from the Peloponnese.
The real help comes from one man named outside the narrative's usual circle of kings: Lygdamis of Naxos, an ethelontēs, "volunteer," who brings both money and men with the greatest prothymiē, "zeal." Herodotus returns to Lygdamis later, when Pisistratus repays the favor by installing him as tyrant of Naxos; the debt recorded here in one modest sentence becomes, a few chapters on, the reason an island gets a dictator.
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