Excavations made on the slopes of the hill below the modern town have revealed some protohistoric Sikan huts and a Hellenistic building. As with the necropolis, no evidence has been found here dating from the same three century period between the late 7th and late 4th centuries BC.
Near Fontana Calda, beside the torrent Comunelli, are the remains of an ancient rural sanctuary. The patron deity of the sanctuary appears to have been Polystephanos Theo, identified as a local version of the Greek goddess Artemis. The votive offerings found here consist of figurines with hunting bows and hounds. These offerings indicate the sanctuary was first used during the archaic period, and was at its height in the second half of the 4th century BC. Evidence shows that the sanctuary remained in use well into Roman imperial times.
Remains of ancient Greek farmsteads have been identified at several sites throughout the commune including Fiume di Mallo, Priorato, Milingiana, and S. Giuliano. Several Roman graves connected with ancient farms and villages have also been found near the Abbey of Suor Marchesa.
The principal monument of the town itself is an 11th century castle.
The Chiesa Madre contains a fine Renaissance triptych, and a Madonna painted by Filippo Paladino (c1544-1614).
Several artifacts from the commune of Butera are located at the National Museum of Gela.
Butes: A mythological hero. A native of Athens, he joined the expedition of the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece. On the return journey back to Greece, the Argo past the rocks of which lived the Sirens. Swayed by their sweet singing, Butes jumped overboard and would have drowned had the goddess Aphrodite not come to his rescue. She brought Butes safely to western Sicily where he settled. He was said to be the father of Eryx.
Buthrotus river: (mod. Novito river). River of Bruttium. It fell into the Locrensis sinus, to the N of Locri.
Butuntum: (mod. Bitonto). A city of ancient Apulia (Peucetia), on the Via Egnatia, between Rubi and Barium.
Buxentum (or Pyxous, Pyxus, Pixous)(mod. Policastro Bussentino): A city on the west coast of Lucania, situated by the mouth of the river Buxentum. Originally known as Pyxus (or Pyxous, Pixous) (= “full of box-trees”), it was founded in 471 BC by Micythus, tyrant of Messana and Rhegium. Under the Romans, the town became a colony in 194 BC, and was later a municipium. In medieval times, a new center called Policastro was founded on a nearby site.
Buxentum promontorium: (mod. Capo degli Infreschi). Promontory of ancient Lucania, located at the city of Buxentum.
Buxentum, River: Ancient name for the river Bussento. A river of Lucania, falling into the sea NW of Blanda.
Byzantines: More properly, the eastern Romans. The “Byzantine” empire is a name given by later western scholars and politicians to the surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire which survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire for nearly a thousand years. The name derives from Byzantium, the Greek town on the European side of the Hellespont, which was replaced by the city of Constantinople in the early 4th century AD. The Byzantines continued to lay claim to Italy and Sicily and made repeated attempts to impose their rule until the triumph of the Normans in the 11th century. As was the case with the previous “Roman Empire”, the Byzantine Empire was held together by a superior military force. From the 6th century, when they wrested the whole of Italy and Sicily from the Ostrogoths until the 13th / 14th centuries when they defied the designs of the French Angevins of Naples, the Byzantine army and navy have played a significant role in southern Italian history. The Byzantine army had its origins in the reformation of the Late Imperial Roman army in the early 4th century. The Roman legions of that era were reorganized into two distinctly different types of armies. The first were the Limitanei, military units strung along the frontier in permanent garrisons. These troops were static in nature, meant to fight defensive actions against barbarians attempting to enter the empire. These garrisons often formed the nuclei of settlements that rose up around them and the soldiers stationed there took local wives, raised families, and were ultimately buried in the local cemeteries. The second Roman force was the Comitatenses, dynamic and highly mobile in nature. These forces were on permanent at the ready to quickly move to deal with any threat throughout the Empire. By the 5th century, the Eastern Roman Empire had five Comitatenses armies, each commanded by an officer called a Magister militum. Two of these armies, designated as praesentales, were stationed at the capital of Constantinople, under the immediate command of the emperor. Two other armies, per Illyricum and per Thracias, were stationed in the northern Balkans to deal with threats from beyond the Danube. The fifth army, per Orientem, was stationed along the Euphrates River to defend against the Persians to the east. A sixth army, commanded by a magister militum per Armenium, was created. Unlike what transpired in the Western Empire, where Germanic mercenaries and allies (known as foederati or federates) came to predominate the army both in the ranks and officer corps, the Eastern Roman army was essentially a “native Roman” force.