in architecture, the lowest part of an order of columns, being that part which fulfils the column, and serves it as a foot or stand. See COLUMN.

PEDIÆAN, in Grecian antiquity. The city of Athens was anciently divided into three different parts; one on the declivity of an hill; another on the sea-shore; and a third in a plain between the other two. The inhabitants of the middle region were called πεδιαῖοι, Pedians, formed from πεδίον, "plain," or "flat;" or as Aristotle will have it, Pediaci; those of the hill, Diacrians; and those of the shore, Paralians.

These quarters usually composed so many different factions. Pisistratus made use of the Pedians against the Diacrians. In the time of Solon, when a form of government was to be chosen, the Diacrians chose it democratic; the Pedians demanded an aristocracy; and the Paralians a mixed government.