 Cicero’s agile use of the dialogue form is manifest in Cotta’s response. He picks up on an aspect of the Epicurean method as Velleius had described it, namely that we must infer the existence of the gods from the fact that everyone has a conception (if often a distorted conception) that the gods exist. Cotta is happy for present purposes to grant the existence of god, while registering his dissatisfaction with both the idea that the belief is universally held, and the notion that, if it were, this would justify inferring its truth.