Hi.

 

The early roman religious always considered the people of Rome as descendants of the greek soldiers of the war of Troy.

HIstorically, Rome is a melting-pot of local and immigrating tribes, such as Greeks and Etruscans.

The story is that the Romans were descendants of the Trojans, not the Greeks, with Ascanius and Aeneas being close relatives of Priam and Hector.

Yes, thank you for the precision.

But according to Homer and pseudo-Apollodorus, Troy was founded by the people of Dardania, that is an ancient indo-european tribe (possibly from the same founding waves of other greek cities) north to Makedonia. It installed in the Hellespont before.

Then of what distinct culture or origin are the Trojans? Their culture is hellenistic, their cities were founded from north-western tribes that splits to Thracia to the east or Greece to the south.

Nothing in the ancient world appears to be so clear. Dardanus was the ancestor of the Trojans in mythology, but were the people known as Dardanians?  Antenor addresses them separately from the Trojans and also from the allies: "Antenor spoke. "Hear me he said, "Trojans, Dardanians, and allies...." http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.7.vii.html (I didn't check the Greek.) I'm not clear about the presence of Anatolian vs Greek culture in Troy, but suspect there was a mix from contact with both worlds.

Carlos Parada gives this genealogy:

The Pelopides

Pelops ₁ was son of Tantalus ₁, son of Zeus ... The Pelopides ruled Mycenae until the return of the HERACLIDES (descendants of Heracles ₁, a descendant of Io). Pelops ₁ came from Phrygia to Hellas, whereas Dardanus ₁ [see below] emigrated from Hellas to Phrygia.

The Trojans

The Trojans were also descendants of Atlas. Dardanus ₁, son of Electra ₃, daughter of Atlas, is at the beginning of the house of Troy, for Dardanus ₁ is father of Erichthonius ₁, father of Tros ₁ (after whom the Trojans are called), father of Ilus ₂ (founder of Ilium, that is, Troy), father of Laomedon ₁, father of Priam ₁, who was king when the city was destroyed.

That leaves the cultural map of 1500-1200 AD unknown to me. That period was the settlement of many nomadic tribes. The world was peaceful there at that time... Although the Illiad is very controversial, there are excellent hints and references for this specific question.

 

I read the Illiad as a teenager and did not care about the historical context. I will read it again soon.