The standard understanding is that at least some ancients knew that a man named Jesus was crucified in the first century. But really, when you think about it, Paul boasts about dying with Christ and having stigmata. Why couldn't some of the more ambiguous 'crucified one' references really be to Paul the magician? An early example from Lucian:
He (Peregrinus) interpreted and explained some of their books and even composed many, and they revered him as a god, made use of him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector, next after that other, to be sure, whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.
Why couldn't this be read as a reference to Paul rather than Jesus? Paul describes his presence as a public and visible depiction — even a painting — of Jesus as the Crucified. Paul was crucified with Christ. But “nevertheless I live.” How does he live? As the living manifestation of Christ.
Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι· ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός·
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote