Well now we need a fact rather than legends like 300 spartans against million persians ;)
In 600 years a small state turns into an empire of eastern europe,balkans,northern africa,middle-east,arabia,western caspian border,black sea,anatolia and lots of other shits.
Every empire has a rise and fall . Im proud about my ancestors. They didn't treat bad to their peoples, they didn't force them to change religion or else they let everyone live as good as they can under empire's flag.
There are 2 nations on europe that you shouldn't fuck with i think. Turks & Russians history has lots of examples ...
(Turks picked on Russians and Ottoman Empire started to fail,All europe picked on Turks -After WWI they could start counter attacking and taking revenge of past 6 centuries- they failed,Napoleon and einstein attacked Russians and both of em failed.)
Im sure Croats,Czechs,Greeks,Austurians maybe even French have something to be proud of in history but if we gonna take "who's dick is longer" way, i'll slap your face with mine.