While trying to complete Extreme mode and keeping my cold blood on the first 1000 foes fight in Rome, I noticed an interesting glitch that may turn out to be useful for some of us willing to get the "Toutatis' right hand" achievement while not being afraid of cheating.

Probably for fast-loading purposes, the game keeps in memory the setting of the level from one save to another. Loading a completed version of the stage in any level of difficulty, then closing it (without shutting down the game), and loading your fresh level in Extreme difficulty should let you bypass every fight in the level except for the final one. All drawbridges will be lowered, every gate opened, and every lock-fight disabled.

Note that if you are going for a 100% run, this glitch might cause you wrong. Indeed, every move that permanently altered the environment in your completed game will be transfered on your Extreme save. Thus, only the first golden laurel will remain available, the two others having been deleted from the environment in your first, completed save. Logically, you should be able to not grab those two laurels in your first save, and only grab them in your Extreme run. The same observation applies to iron crates.

To go back to a legit uncompleted version of the level, you'll have to completely restart the game, and reload your fresh save before any other. Be careful with this manipulation as it could ruin your Extreme save if you go for a 100% run.

The main benefit of this exploit is to let you bypass the first fight without having to pull out any fancy stunt through the raised drawbridge. Also, you won't properly be in a "passive lock" situation, as the game won't detect any lock-fight at all through the entire level.
I only took the occasion to test this glitch on the last level, but it is very likely that you should be able to use it on most of the hardest unskippable milestones of the extreme mode.

Honestly, the Extreme mode in this game is so ill-calibrated and frustrating that you should not be ashamed to cheese the game, and to exploit the massive amount of bugs and glitches that "Microids" left in their remaster.