OPTATIVE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Optative

... Alban!" Here the condition "if thou hadst kept, etc." stands without the consequence "thou wouldst not have died," or something of the kind. Such a condition may be expressed without si, just as in Eng. without "if," cf. Iuv. III. 78 and Mayor's n. The use of the Greek optative to express a wish (with [Greek: ei gar], etc., and even without [Greek: ei]) is susceptible of the same explanation. The Latin subj. has many such points of similarity with the Gk. optative, having absorbed most of the functions of the lost Lat. optative. [Madv. ...

— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero