Whatever may have been the origin of the belief in the connexion of Rome with Troy, it certainly prevailed before the poem of Naevius was composed, as at the beginning of the First Punic War the inhabitants of Egesta opened their gates to Rome, in acknowledgment of their common descent from Troy.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
Not long afterwards three hundred cavalry came to them from Egesta, and about a hundred from the Sicels, Naxians, and others; and thus, with the two hundred and fifty from Athens, for whom they had got horses from the Egestaeans and Catanians, besides others that they bought, they now mustered six hundred and fifty cavalry in all.
"The History of the Peloponnesian War"
Thucydides
If Nicias was prepared for the news from Egesta, his two colleagues were taken completely by surprise.
"The History of the Peloponnesian War"
Thucydides