City
Butuntos
Bitonto
Listen to the story
Butuntos, now Bitonto in Apulia, was a town of the Peucetii, standing where the Via Traiana crossed the Via Gellia. It struck its own coins in the third century BC, yet the Roman poet Martial held it up as the very picture of a wretched little place. A pilgrim's route from Bordeaux lists it merely as a mutatio, a stop for changing horses. The church of San Pietro sopra Minerva covers a temple of Minerva, goddess of wisdom and crafts. On the map, the road line towards Bari was never drawn, although the mileage is given.