 In the dialogue he appears as pontiff, but not as consul.He was made pontiff soon after 82 BC, and consul in 75 BC, and as Cicero, who is present at the dialogue as a listener, did not return from Athens till 77 BC, its fictional date can be set between the years 77 and 75 BC, when Cicero was about thirty years of age, and Cotta about forty-eight.The book contains various obscurities and inconsistencies which demonstrate that it was probably never revised by Cicero, nor published until after his death.