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Under Augustus, the Romans had established a system of government in the middle east, carving up the Jewish lands into four tetrarchies: divide and conquer. Then a band of rebels appeared with a leader whom they claimed to be descended from King David, and therefore rightful king of all the Jews - this was a serious threat to Roman rule, a threat to unite the Jewish people again. There was no choice, they had to get rid of him, so he was captured and crucified, like any other criminal and rabble-rouser. 

That’s the only historically plausible interpretation of the fairy story later built up around Jesus. It explains the story of the mocking sign ‘King of the Jews’. The Roman governors would never have executed a man for merely preaching Jewish heresy, however much pressure the temple elders tried to put on them, they would have relished such splits in the religious establishment. 

But as with Mohammed later, people trying to start a religious movement based on a political figure have to invent myths of a spiritual dimension in order to win followers to the cause.