pĕdester, tris, tre (masc. pedestris, Nep. Eum. 4, 3; Vop. Prob. 21, 1), adj. [pes], on foot, that goes, is done, etc., on foot, pedestrian.
I Lit.: gratior illi videtur statua pedestris futura, quam equestris, Cic. Phil. 9, 6: equestres et pedestres copiae, foot-soldiers , infantry , id. Fin. 2, 34, 112: copiae, Caes. B. G. 2, 17 al.; Tac. H. 2, 11 fin. ; so, pedester exercitus, Nep. Eum. 4, 3: pedestre scutum, of a foot-soldier , Liv. 7, 10: pugna, id. 22, 47: proelium duplex equestre ac pedestre commisit, Suet. Dom. 4: pedestris acies, Tac. A. 2, 17.—
2 In plur. subst. pedestres, foot-soldiers , Just. 11, 9; people on foot , Vulg. Matt. 14, 13; id. Marc. 6, 33.—
3 Pedestria auspicia nominabantur, quae dabantur a vulpe, lupo, equo, ceterisque animalibus quadrupedibus, Paul. ex Fest. p. 244 Müll.—
B Transf., on land , by land : pedestres navalesque pugnae, Cic. Sen. 5: pedestria itinera, the roads by land , Caes. B. G. 3, 9; cf. id. B. C. 2, 32: proelia pedestria, Just. 4, 4, 4: transitus, Plin. 3, 11, 16, § 101; Mart. Spect. 28. —
II Trop., of style, like the Gr. πεζός, not rising above the ground , not elevated.
A Written in prose , prose (Gr. idiom; Lat. prosa oratio): Plato multum supra prosam orationem et quam pedestrem Graeci vocant, surgit, Quint. 10, 1, 81: pedestres historiae, Hor. C. 2, 12, 9.—
B Plain , common , without poetic flights , without pathos , prosaic : dolet sermone pedestri Telephus, Hor. A. P. 95: quid prius inlustrem satiris musāque pedestri, id. S. 2, 6, 17 (for which: sermones Repentes per humum, id. Ep. 2, 1, 251): opus, Aus. Ep. 16, 78: fabulae, Ter. Maur. p. 2433 P.