Despite being sited in mountainous territory, the higher elevations of the city offer views of the nearby coastline, including Stromboli.

Its position – near the Greek and Carthaginian ports, home to a conquering tribe of Lucanians and Brettians, and with decent relations with Rome and the Etruscan cities, meant that it enjoyed great wealth.

Greeks had colonized the coastal cities of Sicily and Southern Italy, but the Bretti and Lucanians refused to yield.

After they sided with Hannibal in the Second Punic War, Rome confiscated half of their territory, and insisted on the right to clear cut their forests, which ended up supplying the timber and pitch for Roman fleets.

In addition, much the neighboring territory of Amantea proper was given to the Roman people as public land – anyone could homestead there and grow crops.

Finally, the Romans also likely located a small military base near Lago, in modern Aiello Calabro.

It is likely that the population was further augmented by lowlanders, who understood that mosquitoes do not breed above a certain elevation, as it was also during this time that the low-lying parts of Southern Italy had serious problems with malaria.

Similar to the rest of Cosenza and Catanzaro, Lago was a center of world silk production during the Middle Ages.

In the 1753 census of Lago commissioned by the Kingdom of Naples, wealth was counted primarily by how many mulberry trees one owned.