William Emerton Heitland (1847 1935) was a Cambridge classicist, who was described as having 'a passionate desire to attain the truth'. His most distinguished work, Agricola, published in 1921, is a detailed study of agricultural labour in classical times. He makes use of a wide range of sources, from Homer in the eighth century BCE to Apollinaris Sidonius in the fifth century CE. In asking the question, by whom and under what conditions was the work done, he deals with land tenure, taxation, military service and political theory. He argues that changes in agricultural production were...