>>Or are you of the opinion that Saul of Tarsus was an undercover operative from the Roman MI5 and that it was in his version of Jesus that the royals hid their repackaged Julius?<<

Paul likely did not exist. He, like Christ, is found in no other writings of that period other than church literature. Nor did he ever say his name was Saul or that he came from Tarsus and if he did he was most certainly not a Jew since Tarsus was a non-Jewish city. He claimed to be a Pharisee and yet Gamaliel was the Pharisaic teacher of that time and his school was in Jerusalem where Paul admits he had never been until some 14 years after his conversion. He was likely a Roman royal churning out pseudo-Jewish pap.

Judiac affectations among Roman royals was actually quite common. For example, the Loeb Classical Library "The Apostolic Fathers Part I" p. 4 informs us, "More complicated and more interesting are suggestions that Clement may be identified or at least connected with Titus Flavius Clemens, a distinguished Roman of the imperial Flavian family. This Titus Flavius Clemens was in 95 A.D. accused of treason or impiety by Domitian, his cousin, owing, according to Dio Cassius, to his Jewish proclivities."

Coincidence that Josephus's full name was Flavius Josephus? Supposedly a Jew captured by the Roman army after he commanded a contingent Jewish rebels to dump burning oil on Roman soldiers. Obviously, they would have taken his head upon his capture and certainly not made him a Roman royal Flavian!!!! He was another Titus Flavius Clemens—a true Flavian from the git-go who had "Jewish proclivities."

His works were scoured by the Gospel writers to provide some substance to an otherwise historically sparse gospel narrative. Read these statements by Josephus and see for yourself:

"So Jesus the son of Sapphias, one of those whom we have already mentioned as the leader of a seditious tumult of mariners and poor people, prevented us, and took with him certain Galileans, and set the entire palace on fire, and thought he should get a great deal of money thereby, because he saw some of the roofs gilt with gold. They also plundered a great deal of the furniture, which was done without our approbation; for after we had discoursed with Capellus and the principal men of the city, we departed from Bethmaus, and went into the Upper Galilee. But Jesus and his party slew all the Greeks that were inhabitants of Tiberias, and as many others as were their enemies before the war began." Vita, v. 12

"…for an actor was introduced, by whom a leader of robbers was crucified, and the pantomime brought in a play called Cinyras, wherein he himself was to be slain, as well as his daughter Myrrha, and wherein a great deal of fictitious blood was shed, both about him that was crucified, and also about Cinyras." Antiquities, Book XIX, Ch 1, v. 13

"Watchmen were accordingly posted by them on the towers, who gave warning whenever the engine was fired and the stone in transit, by shouting in their native tongue, "The Son is coming!" Jewish Wars, Book V, v. 272 (The Greek text of this passage found in Loeb's version renders the statement as "Ho uios erketai" or "The son is coming" while Whiston dishonestly omits it altogether)

"Now, when they had given Jonathan and his companions these instructions, they gave them forty thousand [drachmae] out of the public money: but when they heard that there was a certain Galilean that then sojourned at Jerusalem, whose name was Jesus, who had about him a band of six hundred armed men, they sent for him, and gave him three months pay, and gave him orders to follow Jonathan and his companions, and be obedient to them." Vita, v. 40

Casts Jesus Barabbas in a whole new light, doesn't it?