Dictators know that to get on top you must eliminate your enemies and all opposition.
When in power the way they control their success is by creating a culture where education takes a back seat.
This is observable in countries where regimes have risen that follow religious ideologies or a communist style agenda.
In such places the highly educated are usually targeted first and if they oppose the government they can be executed.
This was observed in Russia under Stalin, in Germany under Hitler and in China under Mao Tse-Tung, who is still referred to as Chairman Mao.
While denying their people the right to an education by eliminating the professors considered free thinkers and, therefore, disloyal they safeguard their positions by preventing the rise of intelligence that might work against them.
Only those loyal to the cause, usually a party, are permitted to achieve.
Then it is a case of everyone turning into a policeman to watch their neighbours and report any activity contrary to the regime's agenda.
Good whistle-blowers are rewarded.
Propaganda is more easily absorbed when people are starved of education so that the media broadcasts only the things that promote the cause.
Over and again throughout history we can follow this trend in regions where empires are built and maintained under the leadership of a man and then his heirs.
Another factor in successful dictatorship is the elimination of religious meetings and destruction of temples, churches, etc.
In some cases a specific religion is retained or used as a weapon to promote the cause.
This is happening today in places where regimes are at war with their people, such as in Syria, which is supported by countries like Iran, China and Russia, where the same tactics were used in their history.
Such imperial masters raid usually will raid and plunder their neighbours, take slaves and generally abuse those not of their thinking.
It's happening today just as it did in every case throughout the known records of human endeavor.
If one could set rules for successful dictatorship then we have to look to the past as nothing changes under the sun.
That is why when we look at the Roman Dictator and Emperor, Constantine, we could expect that the same scenario took place.
Records show he killed hundreds of thousands and murdered even members of his own family along the way to sole rule.
He then put in place a religion that he established at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AC (after Caesar) in the form of the Roman Catholic Church.
His edicts demonstrate that he forced every one of any age, and type, any religion to worship the image he put up as the Saviour.
He built the Vatican and other churches for worship.
He was a tyrant of the worst kind by modern measure and his religion has made him a saint.
There is nothing strange about the actions of Constantine when one considers him in his role.
He is called 'The Great' just as Mao Tse-Tung is called the Chairman.
There is nothing great about any of these men except that they have blood spilled throughout their kingdoms and that makes exciting reading in history books.
If that doesn't happen then the reigns of kings and emperors are almost passed over as boring.