the government's discretion, rather than on a regular schedule. Usage of the system of lodgings and animals used by the service required official permission from the provincial governor, or the emperor. Governors acted as overseers for the system, and some public officials were also entitled to use it as a form of personal transportation. Religion and health Pilgrimage to one of the major oracles was one of the central reasons for religious travel in the ancient world, particularly in Rome. These pilgrimages were generally made to oracles, such as that at Delphi, who was known as Pythia or simply the Oracle of Delphi, a title that passed to different women. Romans would have visited these oracles in the hopes of gaining some insight about their future. Generally, oracles were associated with a god. Pythia, for example, was associated with Apollo. Health also played a role in motivating travel, both in Roman and Greek culture. Travelers visited sanctuaries associated with deities or gods and specific phys, such as the Greek one at Epidaurus, in the hopes of curing illness and disease. These sanctuaries would have sometimes been associated with specific physicians, as well as deities. Galen, for example, was famously associated with the sanctuary of Asclepius. Sanctuary sites were often isolated, and included springs, as well as diversions, such as works of art and stadiums for athletic events. Other forms of travel in the name of health, such as journeys by ship, also existed. Festivals In Greco-Roman culture, festivals occurred either annually or every few years, and were held for religious reasons. Generally, they were held in fixed locations, and individuals traveled from city to city in order to attend. However, there were also universal festivals, occurring throughout Greece and Rome, and both universal and local festivals could be celebrated by citizens while abroad. The most popular of these festivals were the originally Greek games: the Pythian Games, the Isthmian Games, the Nemean Games, and, most famously, the Olympic Games. These revolved around the performance of artistic and athletic feats to honor individual deities, and continued to be celebrated after Rome's conquest of Greece. Festivals served deliberately to motivate travel, with the purpose of not only asserting communal identity at the imperial or societal level, rather than the local level, but also promoting Greek and Roman culture as opposed to foreign or "barbaric" practices. The length of festivals rarely exceeded five