Definition:Josephus Problem/Historical Note

Historical Note on the Josephus Problem
The legend describes an incident during the sack of in $\text {67 CE}$ by  and his son, both future emperors.

The story goes that the Jewish historian, at the time the commander of the Jewish rebels, was holed up in a cave with a bunch of comrades (some sources give the exact number of rebels as $41$), hiding from the Romans.

Death was preferable to capture, so they determined a procedure whereby they would all commit ritual suicide.

They all stood in a circle, and counted round.

Every third person was killed, and the gap was closed.

However, Josephus (and possibly a co-conspirator) figured out where to stand in the circle so as to be last to be picked.

He (or they) gave themselves up to the Romans.

Hence lived to tell the tale.

According to in his  of $1992$, this incident was first presented as a puzzle to be solved by, although he fails to indicate where it appears.

The exercise of elimination by counting is familiar to schoolchildren the world over.