Actually the 2 1/2 hour version was the theatrical version world wide. One of the reasons they got away with spending so much making the movie was that right off the bat it was sold twice, one theatrical and one TV mini-series. So functionally they got two budgets to make one movie, then they released the theatrical while continueing to edit the mini-series. Then eventually they split the difference and made the "directors cut" which was basically the theatrical movie plus about an hour of character development from the mini-series, to the best of my knowledge this never saw real theatrical release but you never really know what random "art houses" are have done. Now the entire mini-series version is out on DVD in America (though very difficult to find in person, on Amazon it's easy look for the one with a 293 minute running time).
Really and truly one of the most brilliant movies ever, no matter which version you watch.
"...on Amazon it's easy, look for the one with a 293 minute running time)."
Thanks, I might just have to pick up the extended version. In the case of MASADA the mini-series was really worth the extra time over the feature length movie version.