In his epic poem, The Aeneid, Virgil traces the lineage of the Roman people back to Aeneas, a Trojan hero who escaped the destruction of Troy. Aeneas, according to Virgil, sailed to Italy and founded the city of Lavinium, which eventually led to the founding of Rome.
This connection between Troy and Rome was a powerful piece of propaganda for Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor who commissioned Virgil's epic. It emphasized the glorious origins of the Roman people and their link to a great and ancient civilization.