It's exactly what I've said. You are incorrect as they were classified as another Judaic sect. They weren't forced out of Judaism until the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132 AD. There were four sects to Judaism prior to the destruction of the Temple. They were Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Nazarenes. All were equal in the eyes of the Levitical priests and were still allowed to worship as they see fit. Essenes were an apocalyptic sect that lived in seclusion in the wilderness. Pharisees were the teachers and scribes that were jealous of the power wielded by the priests. Sadducees were the Levite priests. Finally, the Nazarenes were the ones that believed that the prophesy of the messiah had been fulfilled.
After the destruction of the Temple, there were now three sects left. You have the Essenes, Pharisees, and Nazarenes. The Sadducees lost their power and influence when they temple was destroyed. They ended up joining one of the other three sects.
The interesting thing about this time period was that Jewish apocalyptic sects were very common. The Essenes were an apocalyptic sect along side the Nazarenes.
Nazarene men were allowed to go all the way to the altar in the Court of the Priests as they were Jews. Nazarene women could go to the Court of the Women as they were Jews. Gentiles were forced to stay in the Court of the Gentiles while proselytes were stuck at the Golden Gate.
Rabbi Akiva declared Bar Kokhba the messiah in 134 AD, so the Nazarenes supported the rebellion during those first two years. Once Bar Kokhba was declared to be the messiah the Nazarenes had no choice but to walk away from the war. As a result, the Rabbinic Jews ran the Nazarenes out of all the towns and synagogues.
At the same time, Rome issued a decree that said you were either a Jew or a Christian. One could not be both. Christian was a new title created by Roman Nazarenes that were loyal to Rome. They did not keep the Torah as they were commanded to do while the Jewish Nazarenes did. It was used as a propaganda weapon against the Jewish Nazarenes and many of them were put to death. They refused to give up the Torah and their Jewishness. The "Christians" that died in the Colosseum were Jewish Nazarenes in the majority and sympathetic Roman Nazarenes that rejected the identification Christian.
As a result, the Nazarenes wandered to the east out of Roman held lands or hid themselves in plain site. At this time, the Rabbinic rabbis wrote up a prayer that was a curse towards Nazarenes that all people in the synagogue had to say.
Nazarenes remained the topic of conversation up until the 600s.
