Why did Flavius Josephus call Hanukkah the Festival of Lights?

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus was the first to refer to Hanukkah as the "Festival of Lights" in his work The Antiquities of the Jews, completed in 93 ce.12

For Josephus, this designation was not a reference to the physical candles of the menorah, but rather a metaphor for religious freedom. This interpretation differs from later traditions, such as those found in the Babylonian Talmud, which recast the holiday around the miraculous account of a small jar of oil lasting for eight days.123