Were the Praetorian Guard a military unit or a paramilitary unit?

by WotArYeFokinGay

What were their origins? What did they do?

HatMaster12

Hey, sorry to be late to the party, but I wrote up an answer to [a similar question here] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4yusej/how_much_better_trained_was_the_praetorian_guard/?). Hopefully this helps!