I am preparing lectures for a course next summer on the Gospel of John and I wanted to get my students familiar with ancient expectations of what the messiah would be like. One way to teach about how early Jewish traditions of Messianism were interpreted is to point students to Messianic pretenders and their followers.
I found THIS website which offers lists by time period and also the sources that refer to such people. Priceless!
(If the link doesn’t work, try to go directly: http://www.livius.org/men-mh/messiah/messiah00.html#overview)
You may want to check out Encyclopedia of Messianic Canadates and movements edited by Dr. Eugene Mayhew