Sentence:  But as the youth increased their annoyance by declaring that the goddess was quite right, because the Emperor was Archon Eponym of the city of Athens, he said: "<WSD>Would</WSD> that he also presided the Panathenaic festival." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Might wish ( + verb in past subjunctive); (that)) in the sense of "if only". (from 13thc.)