So part of the reason to believe he was a real figure was that, crucifixion was a humiliating punishment at the time. The fact that people were worshipping a guy who was crucified was ridiculous at the time. Lots of people were talking about a guy Jesus who got crucified, and they weren’t friends of Christians.
You had early Christians talking about Jesus, and early enemies of Christianity talking about some charlatan who got humiliated by being crucified and then for some reason people still worshipped him, which would have been ridiculous.
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/roman-history-and-jesus-existence-extra-biblical-proof-that-jesus-was-real/
https://www.history.com/articles/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence
https://youtu.be/8NYnhoJ-RMM
So part of the reason to believe he was a real figure was that, crucifixion was a humiliating punishment at the time. The fact that people were worshipping a guy who was crucified was ridiculous at the time. Lots of people were talking about a guy Jesus who got crucified, and they weren’t friends of Christians.
You had early Christians talking about Jesus, and early enemies of Christianity talking about some charlatan who got humiliated by being crucified and then for some reason people still worshipped him, which would have been ridiculous.
The guy probably existed as a historical figure.