But it was different times then. People were very into superstition, otherwordliness etc & so he picked up a large following.
But you had just spoken of moderns managing to get folks to drink Koolaid, which I take it means poisoned Koolaid a la Jim Jones.
Other than Masada (which was different because of that whole Roman army thing), can you name any comparable ancient examples?
Yes but Jim Jones only got a few hundred people for a few years.
Jesus got quite a few more.
Examples? How's about Judaism, Islam, Buddism, Hinduism, Shinto etc etc ... signing onto someone's religion appears to have been quite the hobby in the days of old.