Similarities of coinage suggest that Bitonto was under the hegemony of Spartan Tarentum, but bearing the numismatic legend BITONTINON. Later, having been a Roman ally in the Samnite Wars, the "civitas Butuntinenses" became a Roman "municipium", preserving its former laws and self-government and venerating its divine protectress, whom the Romans identified by "interpretatio romana" as Minerva; the site sacred to her is occupied by the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli. As a city of the Late Roman Empire, Bitonto figures in the "Liber Colonis" of Frontinus, in the Antonine Itinerary and other Imperial itineraries, and the Tabula Peutingeriana, a post where fresh horses were to be had for travellers on the Via Traiana for Brundisium.