Yes but it is obscure: there is a Roman legion in Libya which keeps watch on an island several hundred miles away by means of a devise mounted on top of a tower. There are numerous other examples the nature of which I do not recall at present.
Even before the Old Kingdom times, various peoples were familiar with stars which cannot be resolved with the naked eye.
There are also several hints that some sort of telescope was use in survey during the Old Egyptian Kingdom. Lenses were common even then, usually for a sort of pince-nez with a lens a diopter ground lens inserted for nearsightedness or farsightedness. They are found today in many museums, usually in the jewelry sections.
Sorry but I do not have the exact reference handy, but it is also found in the Crystal Sun by Robert Temple.
Methinks either you or the Romans were confused. If I’m on top of a 2000 foot tower, which I assume you will agree were scarce in Roman times, the distance to the visible horizon is a little over 50 miles.
I would not be a bit surprised if Egyptian priests developed secrets such as this. One of the amazing things about the development of modern science is that people got credit not for keeping secrets but for publishing them.
So it’s entirely possible telescopes and similar stuff was invented multiple times, but never spread because the inventors kept it to themselves and their heirs, leading to obvious likely eventual loss.