The Romans
The Romans had no interest in making Jesus look real. They saw his followers as trouble.
Tacitus, the greatest historian of Rome, called the Christian faith a "most mischievous superstition." Writing around AD 116, he explained where the name came from:
"Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus."
Around AD 112, Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor, wrote to the emperor about the Christians in his province. They met before dawn and sang a hymn "to Christ, as to a god."
The Jews
The Jewish historian Josephus, writing around AD 93, names Jesus twice. When he records the death of James in Jerusalem, he identifies him as "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ."
The rabbis who rejected Jesus wrote about him too. The Talmud records that "on the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged," for sorcery and leading Israel astray. John says Jesus was crucified on "the Parasceve of the Pasch," the eve of the Passover (John 19:14).
His critics
In the second century, the satirist Lucian mocked Christians for worshipping "the man who was crucified in Palestine." The philosopher Celsus wrote a whole book against the faith. He said Jesus worked his miracles with powers he picked up in Egypt.
Nobody in the ancient world argued that Jesus never lived. His enemies argued about what he was.
The stones
The people around Jesus keep turning up in the ground.
The straight answer
Yes, Jesus existed. Roman officials, Jewish historians, hostile rabbis and pagan critics all wrote about him, and none of them were on his side.
They agree with the Gospels on the things that matter. He lived in Judea, gathered disciples, was known for wonders, and was put to death under Pontius Pilate at Passover time. And his followers, from the start, worshipped him as God.