"Optative" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... thy word, 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. on D.F. ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero |
