 Those favouring oligarchy persuaded the assembly to allow commissioners to rewrite the Athenian constitution.According to the historian Thucydides, there were ten of these commissioners, while Aristotle puts the number at 20 and specifies that these commissioners were in addition to the ten "probouloi".The new constitution replaced the previous council with one consisting of 400 men who would not be paid by stipend (thus barring the lower classes).