in Architecture, the lowest part of an order of columns, being that part which sustains the column, and serves it as a foot to stand. See COLUMN.

PEDIÆAN, in Grecian antiquity. The city of Athens was anciently divided into three different parts; one on the descent of a 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 πέδιον, "plain," or "flat;" or as Aristotle will have it, Πεδιαῖοι: those of the hill, Diaerians; and those of the shore, Paralians.

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