Thucydides Wine Quote

[rocktupac]

I have seen a number of websites using a supposed line from Thucydides about wine. I have searched in Thucydides a number of times and can't find the quote. The websites do not cite where in Thucydides they found the quote, they only ever cite H. Johnson's "Vintage: The Story of Wine" (Simon & Schuster, 1989, p. 35).

Here is the quote:
"The people of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine."

I am beginning to think this is a dubious quote. Does anybody know if this is a real quote from somewhere? Thanks!

[D B Campbell]

I am beginning to think this is a dubious quote.

I think you may be right. But it's a mystery where Johnson has picked it up from (for, as you say, all instances seem to post-date his).

Thucydides (History 1.2) refers to the primitive Greeks "never planting their land" (οὐδὲ γῆν φυτεύοντες), and I notice that Bloomfield's note (1829) explains that the verb φυτεύω (literally "I plant") "has a reference to the culture of the vine, and olive, and other fruit trees". Could Johnson have picked it up from here? Seems far-fetched, but I can't see an alternative.